


Oumota Collection

by Starling (StarDandere)



Series: V3 Ficlets [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ficlet Collection, M/M, it's spelled ouma smh, various au stuff, with occasional saioumota sprinkled in
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-11-08
Packaged: 2019-04-05 03:50:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 34
Words: 29,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14035557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarDandere/pseuds/Starling
Summary: A collection of oumota shorts from various prompts and AU snippets





	1. Prank - Modern AU

Something was off.

 

Kaito narrowed his eyes as he carefully scanned the room. Since middle school, he’d slowly but surely gotten a sense of when his (very annoying) neighbor and friend was trying to prank him. This was one of those times where that sense was activating. Nothing seemed off, however; was it a false alarm? Cautiously, he let himself shrug it off and go to sit down to start on his homework. (No whoopee cushion this time.)

 

Five minutes later, it started. “It” being the creepiest fucking sound he’d ever heard. Sound effects that would be fitting for a horror movie echoed around his living room, immediately distracting him from the task at hand. He jerked out of his seat and wildly looked around, trying to locate the sound. And as if on cue, when he stood the lights flickered, struggling for a few long seconds to stay on before going out entirely. Kaito felt his heart leap into his throat as his panic increased.

 

This was a prank. It had to be a prank.  _Please_  let it be a prank.

 

“O-Ouma, dammit, t-that’s enough; I know that’s you..!” He attempted to shuffle towards the light switch, but as he did so, his bare ankle brushed up against something. That combined with the creepy atmosphere resulted in only one thing: a scream. His scream, to be precise. His limbs lashed out in terror-

And then he was on the ground. Or rather, on top of something on the ground. Something that let out a muffled “ow” as he landed. At any other time, he would’ve scrambled to get off, but his limbs felt paralyzed in the wake of his continued terror.

“Ugh, Momota-chaaan,” Ouma whined from under him, “Get off, you’re heavy!”

Somehow, just his voice managed to calm him enough to respond without stuttering, “Turn off your stupid prank first!”

“Huuuh? What prank?”

“Don’t play dumb! I’m being serious!”

 

“Hmm~” Ouma shifted. “You know what, I think I’m comfy now, so you don’t have to- ack!” His lie was interrupted by Kaito elbowing him. “You hit me! Bullying! How could you do this to me?!”

“Just turn it off you ass!”

“Fineee.” He could hear the pout in his voice. Ouma moved again, and the creepy sounds stopped.

Kaito elbowed him again. “The lights too.” A second passed, then the light returned as well. He sighed, and once he felt his pulse return to normal he rolled himself off Ouma.

 

“What the fuck? When did terrorizing me become a prank?”

Ouma smiled as he sat up. “Aw, it wasn’t that bad-”

“Maybe to you! But I know you know all that paranormal horror movie shit freaks me out!” As Kaito’s voice grew in volume, the smile on Ouma’s face grew as well, wide and fake. Kaito squeezed his eyes shut, taking a deep breath to calm himself further. “Look, just- You’ve been acting weird.”

“Oh?” He opened his eyes back up; the smile looked more strained. When was the last time it reached his eyes? “How so?”

He swallowed. “Just, these pranks, they feel like they’re… intensifying. There’s the harmless stuff I’m used to, and then there’s these recent ones.” Hiding every pair of pants he owned, setting all his clocks back two hours, this one, they weren’t- they didn’t feel lighthearted. They felt… disruptive. It put him on edge.

 

“Aw, so Momota-chan doesn’t like my pranks anymore?” He summoned tears to complete his “I’m hurt” look. “I can see when I’m not wanted, so good-”

“No,” Kaito objected, grabbing Ouma’s wrist tightly before he could run away from the conversation, “What’s wrong? Why are you acting out?”

“Ooh, you caught me!” The false smile returned. “The truth is, Harukawa-chan threatened to kill me the other day again; she had a knife and everything, it was so scary!”

 

Deflection. He was trying to distract him from asking further. Kaito frowned. “This isn’t about Harumaki. This is about you.”

“Whaaat?! You don’t care about my-”

“Oh shut up. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“I can’t do both, Momota-chan; do you want me to shut up or talk?”

“Don’t fucking sass me. Why are you being difficult?”

Ouma dug in his heels. “I told you what was wrong, but you don’t trust me! I thought you trusted your friends.”

“I do trust you.” He gritted his teeth. “You’re the one that doesn’t trust me. I can’t understand how you’re feeling or what’s buggin’ you if you won’t talk to me. I feel like the only time I see you anymore is when you’re running out of my house after pranking me.

 

“And I hate it. We’re friends, yet you’re always pushing me away.”

Ouma fell silent, the smile sliding off his face.

“Am I your friend, Ouma? Or just a convenient target?”

“Are we friends?” He echoed, his expression blank. Kaito tightened his grip on his arm. “You don’t treat me like we’re close.”

“What?”

“Saihara-chan, and Harukawa-chan, you call them differently. I’m just Ouma, the brat next door.”

“That’s- That’s different. They’re my sidekicks. You know that.” That wasn’t the right answer. Fuck. “Listen, I- I didn’t know it was that important to you. What do you want me to call you?”

 

Ouma frowned. “You can’t tell me it’s a sidekick thing then change your mind. I’m not a sidekick.”

“No, you’re not.” Kaito sighed. “But you’re one of my best friends.” He paused. “Maybe partner in crime would be more appropriate?”

He snorted in amusement, before quickly covering his mouth. “Crime and you don’t mix. Hell,  _we_  don’t mix.” He lowered his hand to flash Kaito a grin. “Buuuuut if you wanna call me something else, your beloved Kokichi-sama would be perfect!”

“No.”

He pouted. “Why not?”

 

Kaito released his arm and stood. “Because if you’re not a sidekick, I’m sure as hell not a subordinate, Kokichi.”


	2. Sickfic (Kaito) - Tragedy AU

Kokichi was very annoyed.

 

It was bad enough that he could barely tolerate Momota. But for Kaede and Miu to leave him alone with him? While Momota was  _ sick _ ? Terrible. He wasn’t going to play doctor just because he was stupid and didn’t buddle up correctly for living through what was basically a nuclear winter.

...At least, that’s what he told himself, until he found that Momota’s sniffling and grumbling was even worse when he tried to ignore it. And he was bored. He just needed something to do with his time while they were gone. That was it.

 

“Ughhhh you better appreciate this Momota-chan, I don’t even know where you even put the stupid medicine,” Kokichi whined as he dug through piles of random junk they brought home. Most of it probably wasn’t needed, but they had grabbed it anyway; who knew when they’d find it again, and it’d probably have a use someday, whether in their hands, in Miu’s mashing together of random junk to make better junk, or in trading with non-hostile survivors.

“It’s in the kitchen, I think,” Momota croaked back, followed by a loud snort of him attempting to clear his nose.

“You can think?” He taunted, but dropped the bag he was rummaging through to check over there. Ugh, the kitchen was even more of a mess; who was supposed to clean it up? Was it him? He couldn't remember.

 

They were going to need a chore chart. None of them seemed to have the energy to be remembering to do anything aside from survive and that was making his life difficult at the moment. Should they keep inventory? Ah, but then if he grabbed a midnight snack or something, someone would notice. Decisions decisions. He chewed on his thumbnail as he crouched down to check the lower cabinets. Cleaning supplies, a handful of rags, leftovers from the pipes Miu tore apart, nothing useful. Although, now he had the urge to disinfect everything; if any of the rest of them got sick too, there'd be a huge problem.

 

He'd do that after he located the medicine. Nodding to himself, he stood, taking a large step over a pile of pots and pans to reach the next set of shelves. That were high up. With none of the others around (or aware enough) to tease him, he climbed up onto the counter, standing on it as he checked them. Ah, here they were. Of course Momota would put them on a tall shelf, like the tall person he was. Now, what in the world did he even grab? Kokichi started to check the labels, finding a singular bottle of painkillers amidst a large collection of eye drops and... toe fungus remover? What? Why were these useful? He scowled, pushing the collection to the back and going up a shelf. Symptom relievers; at least there was some sort of organization. None of these would be as good as actual cold medicine, but it was better than nothing. Beggars couldn’t be choosers.

 

He placed the painkillers back - best save those for emergencies - and hopped back down and over the pile.

“You know, you gotta stop grabbing so much useless junk, Momota-chan,” He commented as he entered the living room, where Momota was curled up on the couch.

“It’s not all junk,” He objected, slowly rolling out of the cushions to face Kokichi, “You find it?”

“Hmmm,” He threw the bottle between his hands, “Nope!”

“Don’t-” He coughed, “Don’t be a little shit.” He held out his hand expectantly.

“Huh? I don’t have it.”

“It’s in your hands right, right now!”

Kokichi placed the bottle at Momota’s feet. “But it’s not, look.” He showed him his now empty hands.

 

Momota groaned. “You’re such an ass. You know I can’t reach that.” Kokichi hummed, satisfied with his annoyance enough to stop teasing him. He picked the bottle back up and checked the label, before shaking out two pills into his palm.

“Ah, here they are! Open up, Momota-chan!”

He rolled his eyes in response, pulling himself up with another groan. “I don’t need you to baby me, just hand ‘em over.” He held up his palm again, and Kokichi finally dropped them into it. He left him be to medicate himself, moving over to the window to look out for any trouble. Or for Kaede and Miu. Either or was better than staring at Momota’s gross sick face.

 

Whatever solitude he got from his mini-stakeout only lasted for an hour, as Momota rested and thus decided it was time to be high maintenance again.

“Oh my god, Ouma, you, you look,” He started to slur out - was the medicine the drowsy kind? Kokichi spared him a glance. “You look so anxious man.”

He stilled, rolling the words around in his head. “Aw, how sad! It sounds like you’ve started having delusions, poor you!” He shot him a grin and forced his body to relax, leaning back in the chair he dragged over. Momota squinted at him, before making yet another terrible decision: attempting to get up.

 

He immediately fell flat on his face, legs tangled up in the blankets Kaede had forced him to cocoon himself in.

 

“Ughhhhhhh...” He groaned, weakly moving his arms around, and Kokichi sighed.

“Are you sleeping on the floor now? Akamatsu-chan’ll yell at me if you do that.” He gave an exaggerated sniffle. “Do, Do you want her to yell at me?! How cruel!”

“I can’t move,” He mumbled into the ground, either ignoring or seeing through Kokichi’s attempt to get him to pick himself up. He let out an even louder sigh.

“You said you didn’t want to be babied, Momota-chan, yet you’re making me come over and baby you.” He waited to see if that would convince him to move; it didn’t. In fact, Momota didn’t move at all. He better not have fallen asleep on the floor for real.

 

Kokichi stood, walking over to where he was lying. He crouched down, shaking Momota’s shoulder; he groaned in response.

“Help me up, please...” He turned his head and flailed his hand to grab Kokichi’s shoulder. He flinched when it made contact, but sucked it up and pulled his arm around his shoulder. He wasn’t strong enough to lift him; that much was a given. But he managed to give him enough support to collapse most of his body back onto the couch. Kokichi grabbed his dangling legs and lifted them back onto it too, along with the blanket that had caused the situation in the first place.

“Now stay put this time; I’m not doing that again.” He wiped his hands against his shirt nervously; should he wash his hands? He should, shouldn’t he? What a waste of water, and there was the pain of avoiding cross contamination too-

 

“I’m sorry,” Momota sighed, draping his arm over his eyes, “I, I just wanted to help you feel better, but instead I’ve just made you more stressed out.” At least he recognized it, Kokichi thought as he chewed his lip.

“You should just sleep; getting better will make me-” He paused. “-will cause me less trouble.”

Momota had the nerve to smile at that. “Yeah, alright. I’ll do that.”


	3. I believe in you - Tragedy AU

“Why are you always dragging me along?” Kokichi grumbled, distracting Momota from his task of loading their van with various supplies.

“Huh?”

“Wouldn’t Akamatsu-chan be better for this? I’m not even helping, you know.”

 

These expeditions to get supplies were getting on his nerves. Not in a hateful way, he didn’t hate Momota and collecting supplies was necessary, but it was annoying to spend so much time with a practical stranger. The world more or less ending was the only reason they had this uncertain alliance.

“Nah, she’s better suited to be holding down the fort back home, ya know? Plus, even if you’re not doing anything, I know you’re watching my back.”

Kokichi rolled his eyes. “That’s sexist. And home? Seriously? You’ve lived there for like, two months. And I’m not watching your back; I’m watching mine.”

Momota sighed. “Sure, whatever. Anyway, I’m done; let’s get goin’ before we get attacked or something.”

 

Kokichi frowned as he was brushed off, but got into the car regardless. Fighting was the last thing he wanted to do when their “weapons” were little more than modified tasers Miu went crazy with at his request.

 

Once they were moving, he attempted to broach the subject again. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“I did. I told you I trusted you to watch my back.”

“So you don’t trust Akamatsu-chan or Iruma-chan then?”

Momota’s brows furrowed in annoyance. “Why are you grasping for something to attack me with? Did I upset you?”

Kokichi clenched the steering wheel a bit too tightly. “Not really!” He replied with false cheer. “I just like being mean!”

“Bullshit,” Momota mumbled under his breath. He fell silent after that, looking out the window for any sign of a threat.

 

His body itched with restlessness the more he drove. Normally he would talk circles around his scavenging partner to fill the silence of these long drives to and from the destroyed parts of the city (in return, he was given endless facts about space) but from the pensive look on Momota’s face he clearly wasn’t in the mood for more poking and prodding. How annoying. He chewed his lower lip raw in the time it took for them to arrive back “home”.

 

Finally, Momota spoke again, “Wait. Before we go in…” Kokichi paused, letting him continue. “I was serious about what I said. But it’s not that I don’t think the other two couldn’t protect me too; it’s just, well, I dunno, I feel frustrated when I see the way you look at me.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I know you don’t trust me. Hell, with how things are, I don’t blame you. But I also know that you get antsy when I go out with either of the girls, so-”

“Who told you that?” He cut in, perhaps a touch too defensively. He wasn’t- He didn’t get antsy.

“Akamatsu.” Of course. Kokichi made note to bug her later. “Anyway, so I thought maybe if I took you along instead that you’d feel better. Or something like that. I don’t know.”

 

“Pretty presumptuous of you.” He did have to admit that going out was better than pacing around waiting for whichever of the two went out to return.

“Yeah, probably,” he said, giving a small laugh, “But, uh, you know…” He paused, licking his lips before dropping his normally loud voice to something barely above a whisper. “You know we’re all scared too, right? I know Iruma’s more obvious about it, but Akamatsu and I, we-” He cut himself off, biting at his lip uncertainly. Kokichi felt vulnerable in the light of Momota’s lowered walls. He remained silent, and Momota continued. “I’m not asking you to trust me entirely. But know that I trust you. I believe in you. So-” His voice broke, and he quickly cleared his throat. “I, I won’t let any of you die.”

  
He was both afraid and relieved at the absence of a lie in his words.


	4. Sickfic (Kokichi) - Tragedy AU

It all started with a noise in the night.

 

Kaito barely heard it, but it was there. His mind jumped to the most irrational option first: a ghost. Holy shit that’d be terrifying. But there was no such thing as ghosts. Of course. So the next worst option was an intruder snuck by their security and was stealing stuff! He jerked out of bed, determined to fight whoever was downstairs.

 

That was quickly revealed to be Ouma. Standing on the counter, for who knows what reason.

 

“What the hell are you doing?”

Ouma jerked in surprise, grabbing the open cabinet door to steady himself. “Jeez Momota-chan, you’re so loud; do you want to wake everyone up?” His voice had an odd intonation, and Kaito squinted, trying to pinpoint what was off when he could barely see the others face in the dark of the kitchen.

“That didn’t answer my question.”

“I’m not tired so I’m taking inventory.” He closed the cabinet. “But I’m done now; it’s not fun when Momota-chan’s watching me.”

“I didn’t realize inventory was fun in the first place, but whatever; just go back to bed, I thought an intruder snuck in or something.”

 

At any other time, he would’ve been hit with some snarky remark like “oh were you going to fight this supposed intruder?” and a jab at his intelligence. Instead, against his expectations, Ouma hopped down, pushing past Kaito with only an “alright, goodnight!” He frowned in confusion, watching him return back upstairs. He scratched his head, before shrugging it off; he’d figure it out when he was more awake.

  


Of course, he didn’t figure it out. In fact, by the time he woke up, he completely forgotten the late night encounter. All that was on his mind was the daily grind: breakfast included.

“You gotta take the little shit today,” Iruma demanded upon his arrival downstairs, “He’s being annoying as fuck and I got shit I wanna do.”

He sighed, “Yeah, sure.” He looked to Ouma, who was sprawled out on the table. Not as in that he was resting his head on it; he was lying on top of it dramatically, whining softly.

“Going out with Momota-chan sounds booooring. Akamatsu-chaaaaaannnn, save meeeeee!” She ignored him, instead sending Kaito a pleading look that said “please take him off the table.” He moved to comply with her silent plea, and Ouma quickly moved when he reached out to pick him up.

 

“Fineeee, but I’m not driving.” He stuck his tongue out at them, sulking as he returned to his seat.

“If you don’t drive, you better pick some shit up for once,” He retorted, moving to sit down himself. Ouma didn’t respond, choosing to instead poke at his rice with a pout.

 

Half an hour into their drive out, he finally realized something was really weird when Ouma fell asleep against the window. He _never_ fell asleep anywhere aside from his bed. Kaito slowed the van to a stop, staring at him in astonishment. He recalled the night before more clearly now, but damn, it wasn’t _that_ late. Not late enough that he’d be falling asleep in the middle of the day, as if he’d pulled an allnighter. _Had_ he slept?

 

A thought crossed his mind, and he drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, before deciding to check. He reached out, slowly placing his fingers on Ouma’s forehead. _Holy shit-_

Ouma jerked awake. “Huh?” He pushed Kaito’s hand away, rubbing at his eyes blearily. “Why’d you stop? We there already?”

“Dude, you’re burning up; if you were sick, you should’ve said so.”

“I’m not sick,” He objected, straightening himself out, “I’m always this warm.”

“I’m calling BS on that.”

“But I’m not lying!”

He pinched the bridge of his nose, starting the car back up. “Just, ugh, whatever, just stay in the car, alright?”

 

He did not stay in the car.

 

Kaito barely stopped the car before Ouma hopped out, running off - rather slowly - towards the building they decided to check out. He groaned, jerking his keys out of the ignition and throwing his door open to chase after him.

He didn’t have to go far to find him, getting sick in a dark corner. A stomach bug, then? He was going to ignore it for Ouma’s sake, but-

“Ahaha, Momota-chan’s driving is so bad; I’ve never gotten carsick so fast!” He laughed it off, pulling his arms behind his head as if he hadn’t just emptied his stomach onto the floor.

“Uhuh, yeah. Look, just find somewhere to sit while I find something.” Maybe if they got lucky, there’d be medicine left over by the previous occupants.

 

In the time he spent checking the first room, Ouma wandered off.

 

“Shit,” He cursed, running his fingers through his hair. He had the keys, so he didn’t have to worry about him leaving. And if someone had found them, there would’ve been a huge ruckus. But regardless, now he had to search the entire building. He wished he refused Iruma’s demand; sick Ouma required a lot of babysitting, it seemed. He dumped his bag on the lobby’s couch and started opening doors.

 

He found him up on the fourth floor, passed out on the ground. He cursed again, running over to pick him up. Ouma squirmed as he was maneuvered into a sitting position, pushing against Kaito.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” He fussed, very clearly lying. Kaito ignored him, holding him tight and lifting him up.

“We’re going home, and you’re going to rest until you’re better. No complaining.” He said he wouldn’t let any of them die, and he meant it. That included protecting them from themselves. He’d strap Ouma to a bed if it meant he wouldn’t run around with the flu making himself worse.

 

He complained the whole way back. But it would be worth it.

 

Probably.

 

* * *

 

It took all of five seconds of reentering the house for Ouma to start shit.

 

“Akamatsu-chan! Help! I’m in trouble!” He pinched Kaito in attempt to get him to put him down. He relented, but kept his fist tight on the back of his shirt to keep him from running off.

“Dude, don’t make her panic,” Kaito hissed, before raising his voice, “Don’t worry, Ouma’s just being a little shit again.”

She came running regardless. “You’re back really early, something happen?”

“He’s sick; he has a fever and started puking once I stopped the car, and then passed out from running around when I told him to stay put.”

Akamatsu crossed her arms and gave him a stern look. “Ouma-kun, we’ve talked about this. Please stop causing trouble.”

 

He laughed. “I’m not sick! Momota-chan’s mistaken, I told him it was just carsickness.”

“You don’t get carsick; you barely get motion sick from the amusement park rides.”

He opened his mouth, likely to deny it again, but stopped, and attempted to sprint off. Kaito quickly let go, thankfully seeing where this was going. He dry heaved into the trash bin, before sinking to the ground and pouting. “Fine. I'm sick. But only a little. So...” He stared at Kaito. “Momota-chan has to take care of me, since I took care of him! That's the law!”

“There are no laws, dipshit,” He said, while Akamatsu stared at him with wide eyes. What was it now? He scrunched his face up, trying to figure out what she was trying to silently convey this time.

 

When it was clear he wasn’t getting it, she sighed. “Well, I think that’s fair.”

“What?!” He didn’t even ask Ouma to take care of him before! Akamatsu turned her stern look back on, this time at him. “Ugh, fine.” He’d already gotten his germs all over Kaito anyway. He went over and picked him back up, this time with significantly less squirming. Instead, he got a heavy dose of being treated like a servant, as he was ordered to carry him upstairs.

“I’ll drop you,” He threatened when Ouma started pinching him again.

“Noooo, I’ll tell Akamatsu-chan!!” He whined, taking a fistful of Kaito’s shirt into each hand.

“And I’ll tell her you deserved it.” He kicked open Ouma’s door, frowning at the utter lack of a visible floor. Just piles of junk. “And now you have no right to tell me I have too much stuff when your room looks like this.”

 

“It’s not all junk!” He mocked as Kaito shoved clothes to the side to make his way to the bed. “Also, you have to stay here; what if I start feeling worse, it’d be bad if I was alone, right?”

He sighed, resigning to his fate. “Yeah, sure, I’ll stay.”


	5. Closeted - Tragedy AU

Kokichi's door was pounded on in the middle of the night. He snapped awake, jerking up in his bed just in time for Momota to come barging in.

"Sorry, we gotta hide; Iruma's sensor picked up some people in the radius," He explained, and Kokichi groaned. He hated it when people - usually raiders looking for good stuff to lift in the less destroyed part of the city - got near their hideout-home.

"Fiiine, I'm coming." He reluctantly pulled himself out from underneath his covers and walked over, ready to submit to a few hours in the safety closet, when Momota went stiff.

"Uh, ah, maybe you should, uh, put some clothes on?"

 

Oh right. He was only in his underwear. Thanks autopilot. He forced a grin out to cover up his mistake. "Aw, but I thought you'd love to spend time with me with nothing but our bare skin touch-"

"This, this isn't the time for that!" He stuttered out, backing away and fumbling for the doorknob. "I'll, I'll meet you downstairs, alright?!" Aaaand he fled. Well, that made getting his sleep cycle interrupted at least a little worth it. Kokichi plucked a random pair of pants and a shirt off the ground and dressed himself, grabbing a few things he'd rather not lose if the house ended up getting raided while he was at it.

 

The decision to make two separate raid shelters had actually been one of Momota's ideas for the house. Kokichi was normally quick to withhold praise, but it wasn't a half-bad idea. He'd even talked Miu into making connected panic buttons in case one of the two got discovered. Of course, building them into the closets was the bad part of the idea, but by the time Kokichi could complain, they were already set up and no one wanted to move them. Oh well.

 

So began the joyous time of being stuck in the closet with dear closeted Momota-chan.

 

"Truth or dare?"

"Dare."

"I dare you to lick your foot."

"What makes you think I can lift my foot that high?!"

"Is that you begging for a worse dare, Momota-chan? I can always-"

"Shut up, I'm doin' it."

 

Coming up with dares they could do while cooped up in a small space was interesting enough that he didn't get entirely bored. Even if he had to hold back some of the good dares he imagined. All was well, until Momota stopped writing on his right arm to squint at Kokichi. "Wait a minute... Is that my shirt?"

"No?" He looked down at it; it was a bit big, but with his mess of a wardrobe that wasn't surprising or new. Sure, it was galaxy print, but- okay yeah it was probably Momota's.

"Don't lie, I've been looking for that!"

"Well, then why was it in my room? Oh, have you been sleeping in there when I'm gone because you miss me so much!"

"Like hell I-" His shout was interrupted by the loud shriek of the front door alarm going off.

 

On instinct, Kokichi's hand lashed out to turn off the light; on instinct, Kaito's hands reached out to pull Ouma into a tight, terrified embrace.

 

Every thought in his overactive brain ground to a halt. It was one thing to tease Momota, and another thing entirely to be pulled into an enveloping hug. But there was no love in it (thankfully?); just fear. Momota's heart pounded against his back, and he was sure his own was beating to a similar rhythm. As the muffled voices of their intruders drifted past them and off further into the house, the tension in both of their bodies relaxed.

 

"Truth or dare," Momota whispered, to his surprise.

Ha. He knew where this was going. If he said truth, Momota would ask about his shirt. "Dare."

"I dare you to take off that shirt and return it to me." What.

"Oh? Finally asking me to strip, Momota-chan? Sorry, I can't give you a show with the lights off. Or maybe that's what gets you hot and bothered?" Though his words sounded casual and teasing, Kokichi's face burned. Was this really the time for this?

 

From the irritated noises bubbling in Momota's throat, it was clear he was struggling not to react to the provocation. "Just do it."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"You're still holding me hostage in your lap."

One could hear a pin drop in the silence that followed. "Oh. Right." His arms began to loosen, then suddenly tightened again. "Later then."

 

Okay??? Sure, yeah, this was alright. "Later then," he agreed.


	6. Starless - Tragedy AU

“What are you doing, Momota-chan?“

 

Kokichi had peeked into his room minutes earlier to find the window open and Momota on the roof. If it was daytime, such a blatant act could attract unwanted attention. Under the pitch black sky, however, all they needed to worry about was heat seeking jets, which got rarer and rarer, according to the Future Foundation’s public statements. He didn’t entirely believe them, but it was true that none of them had seen planes in forever.

 

Momota sighed as Kokichi climbed up. “Just thinking, I guess. Since there’s no stars to stargaze.“ He gestured up at the ever murky sky. There was a deep sadness in his eyes.

“Didn’t realize you were the brooding type,“ he quietly teased, well aware that he was treading on the edge of insensitivity. He looked up, trying to remember how the night sky looked before the world went to shit.

 

“When- when I was young…“ Momota started, barely above a whisper, “I stayed with my grandparents a lot. Family issues, you know?“ Kokichi didn’t know, personally, but he stayed silent. “I- I was a lot of trouble; we both know I’m hotheaded, but I was way worse as a preteen.

“Anyway, my grandparents took me out camping one summer to try to cool me down. Connecting with nature, spiritual stuff like that.“ He stared off into the distance. “Never really believed in any of that, but…“ He sighed again. “Anyway, it was really the first time I was away from all the light pollution and actually… looking up. I’ll never forget that breathtaking sight. It’s what made me get interested in space.“ He clenched his fists. “I wanted to go so badly.“

Kokichi wasn’t sure what to say; space travel was obviously the furthest thing from any remaining organization’s mind. So, he just hesitantly patted Momota’s arm.

 

In response, he curled in on himself, a choked sound escaping his throat. “I wanted to go  _ so bad _ ,” he repeated, and it didn’t take a genius to tell he was crying, “And even if I did go, the only- the only people who’d care are-” He didn’t finish, but the ending was clear enough.

Kokichi bit his tongue nervously. He wasn’t the comforting type. He wouldn’t lie and say that he’d get to go, and that everything would work out exactly as he imagined it would years ago. But…

“I’d care. And I know Akamatsu-chan would too.“ That was a truth he could tell. There was more he could say, more walls he could let down. “You’re family to us now“, or “it’s okay to cry, I do too“.

 

But he didn’t. Not now. Instead, he kept him silent company, wishing that the sky would clear.


	7. Alibi - HPA AU

An insistent ringing of his doorbell dragged him out of bed at 2:46am. Blinking wearily, Kaito slowly made his way over to open it, headache forming all the while.

 

He’d barely opened the door when Ouma came barreling in, slipping past him and practically shoving the door back closed behind him.

“What the hell?” More profanities would’ve followed, but Ouma quickly covered his mouth and shushed him.

“Be quiet and listen, I don’t have much time. I’m only here to establish an alibi, alright? Play along and I won’t tell Saihara-chan what you got him for his birthday.”

“Play along with what?” He hissed back, “And how do you know what I got him, I haven’t told anyone.”

“Please, his very own ‘galactic jacket’? Even Gonta could guess that.” Kaito gritted his teeth at Ouma’s correct guess(?), glaring at him as he continued. “Just- I pranked Sakakura-chan, so when he comes knocking on doors, tell him I’ve been here all night. I’m certain he didn’t see my face, so he’s going off assumptions.”

“Sakakura? As in, the security guy that punches everyone Sakakura?”

“Yep! He was annoying me - I hate liars, you know - so I decided to prank him.” He didn’t know what Ouma meant by that, and he didn’t have any time to figure it out, as the door was pounded on. Ouma took advantage of his surprise to grab him and pull him down, whispering, “Wait until he knocks again, then open it; it’ll seem more natural.” Then, he darted off to Kaito’s bed, hopping into it and flinging his well-loved space comforter over his shoulders, shooting him a thumbs up.

 

Kaito sighed, massaging his forehead. He was not a good liar, so hopefully this Sakakura wasn’t super observant. He waited as Ouma directed, before finally opening the door again.

This time, he was met with a very angry, very white figure. Flour. Ouma had poured flour all over him. “I’m looking for that brat in your class, the short purple one. You seen him?” He growled, and Kaito was almost intimidated. He hoped he hadn’t gone to Shuichi’s room; he certainly didn’t need to be interrogated like that.

“Uh, Ouma? Yeah, he’s been here all night, why? He do something earlier?”

“He did something half an hour ago, more like it!” He glared past him into the room, eyes fixed on the bed. “He-”

 

“Woah, calm down!” Kaito raised his hands and stepped back as Sakakura looked ready to punch something - or rather, someone. “I dunno what happened-” As if that wasn’t evident, but he didn’t have to point that out. “-but I swear he’s been here all night, so it couldn’t have been him.”

“That’s right,” Ouma chirped, “Momota-chan’s been keeping me super busy!” A few seconds after he finished his sentence, Sakakura choked on his own spit; Kaito turn his head to see him making a lewd gesture with his hands. His face flushed.

“No! Not in that way! Fucking hell Ouma, don’t give him the wrong idea!” Ouma just rolled his eyes at him. But the damage was done, apparently, as Sakakura coughed.

“I’ll… leave…” His face as red as Kaito’s felt, he practically ran away.

 

He turned on him after he shut the door. “Seriously?!”

Ouma shrugged. “Don’t worry, he won’t tell anyone. Anywayyyy…” He leaned until he landed on his side, thoroughly burritoed in his blanket. “Goodnight, Momota-chan!”

“Who said you could stay?!”


	8. Condition - Vampire AU

"Hey,” a voice called out in the night. Kaito flinched back, recognition filling him with both dread and annoyance.

“You again?! What the hell do you want this time?!”

 

He should’ve learned his lesson after last time. Going out stargazing was what had caused an encounter with this… person before. If you could call what was clearly, against all his wishes, a vampire a “person”. Guh, even the word sent a shiver up his spine, and not in a good way. Occult stuff freaked him the hell out; having  _another_  run-in with this actual supernatural creature? Sign him the fuck off.

 

“Just the same thing as last time!” The vampire grinned, small fangs barely visible in the dim street light. “I’m really hungry… Can’t you spare some blood for little ol’ me?”

“No,” he spat, trying to keep his fists from shaking, “Find someone else.” He moved to walk a wide circle around him, when he moved, wrapping his hands around Kaito’s wrist.

“I don’t want someone else; I’ve been waiting here for  _you_.” He licked his lips. “I’m a picky eater; I don’t want just anyone’s blood, you know.”

“Well, too bad.” Kaito jerked his wrist away. “Grow up and find a blood bank or something.”

 

The vampire drew closer, and when he inched away instinctively, his back hit a wall. “You don’t think I’ve tried that? Every time I try to drink elsewhere, I can hardly finish. Nothing’s good enough. But…” His eyes gleamed in the moonlight. “I still remember the way you taste. Every time I’m hungry, my mind wanders back to you. So…” He took Kaito’s wrist into his hand again. “May I have some more, please?”

The desperate tone in his voice caught him off guard. He swallowed nervously, uncertain how to respond. Was he seriously feeling pity right now? Fucking hell. He sighed. “Fine. But I have a condition.”

“ _Anything_ ,” he whispered, leaning forward before pausing, second thinking his answer, “I mean, within reason. I won’t agree to stopping or-”

“Your name.”

“Huh?”

“I want to know your name. Mine’s Momota Kaito.”

 

“Momota-chan,” the vampire mumbled, and a twitch of annoyance surfaced from the honorific. He shifted, staring down and rubbing circles into Kaito’s wrist. After a long pause, he finally answered. “Okay. Mine’s Ouma Kokichi.”

Kaito rolled the name around his head. Somehow, having a name attached to him made the occult factor less intimidating. So, he quietly let Ouma lift his wrist to his mouth and sink his fangs into the skin. It felt weird. Last time, he’d freaked out as soon as he’d realized what was going on, completely out of fear. He’d been terrified that being bitten meant that he’d be turned into one too, but clearly that didn’t happen.

 

Once Ouma was satisfied, he pulled back, wiping away some blood that had dribbled onto his chin. Kaito tenderly covered the pair of marks, chewing the inside of his cheek thoughtfully. “So uh… Is this going to become a regular thing? Kinda be nice to know instead of you just popping up outta nowhere and scaring the shit outta me. Like, you could at least take me to dinner or something first.”

“Oooh a date! So forward, Momota-chan,” Ouma teased, giving him a sly grin.

“Wha- That’s not what I fucking meant! I was just saying-”

“No take backs!” He interrupted, pulling out his phone. Damn, vampires had phones? “So you’re free next Tuesday night, right? Let’s do it then.”

He thought for a moment. “Uh, yeah, sure- Wait. How the hell do you know that?”

Ouma barely lifted his gaze as he poked at his phone screen. “I’ve been watching you, obviously. I had to know your schedule so I could intercept your route without anyone being around.” He then pocketed his phone and grinned. “Anyway, I’ll see you later! Thanks for the meal!”

 

He darted off, and Kaito sighed; what did he just get himself into?


	9. Fear - Canon Divergent

The courtyard turned into a war zone in a matter of minutes. Kaito was grateful for the safety the Exisal provided, though he’d rather not destroy their last safe haven for the sole purpose of cornering the mastermind. Ouma appeared to feel the same, as he hadn’t activated any of the weapons despite the plan being “cause chaos.”

 

Alarmingly, most of the destruction so far stemmed from Shuichi’s Exisal.

 

“You don’t think he’s gonna, uh, accidentally hit the dorms, right?” He would hope that wouldn’t be a legitimate concern, but…

“I don’t know,” Ouma responded, piloting the Exisal towards the dorm, “It looks like he’s attacking things at random.” Well that wasn’t concerning at all. Kaito frowned, trying to figure out what was going through his sidekick’s head when he couldn’t see his face. He hadn’t told any of them what his part of the plan was, so neither of them understood his actions.

 

Harumaki had been given the task of destroying the entrances into the school and then guarding it. It was going to be a pain to get into the dining hall later. Well, assuming-

He broke out into another coughing fit, turning away from Ouma as to not spew blood all over him. Not that he was clean himself, with arrow holes in his back and arm.

 

“I think they’re stirring.” Ouma nudged him, gesturing to the interior of the dorm. He peered into the building as he wiped blood onto his jacket. He was right; Kiibo and Shirogane were huddling together at Shuichi’s door, while Yumeno was at Harumaki’s.

“We should make some noise to draw their attention then,” Kaito said, reaching for the controls.

Ouma swatted his hand away. “I’m sure Saihara-chan’s making plenty of noise; they’ll come out when they’re ready.”

 

They silently watched them ring the doorbells for another minute before Kaito grew impatient again. He looked to see what Shuichi was doing, and found him destroying the Shrine of Judgment. That was one place he could justify tearing apart. He turned his attention back to Ouma.

His hands were shaking, white from how hard he was clenching the controls.

“You’re trembling.”

Ouma laughed bitterly. “Wow, no shit. It’s not as if I almost got killed tonight and am in a lot of pain or something.”

Kaito blinked, not expecting such transparent honesty. He didn’t know what to say, so he kept quiet. Probably wasn’t the time to point out that he’d brought most of this on himself with his recent actions.

 

But it was like his comment opened a floodgate, as Ouma continued to rant. “And it’s definitely not like I have no idea what’s going on, and the one person I thought was least likely to be the mastermind is now begging me to suspect him. But I guess that’s just how it is, huh; everyone lies and betrays in this stupid game.” There was the unspoken “even me” tacked on at the end.

Kaito sighed. Even he’d lied. And the hurt look on Shuichi’s face when he refused to talk to him was likely on the same level of the pain of betrayal.

“Anyway.” Ouma’s tone went flat, and he brushed away any evidence of his outburst off his face. “They’re coming out. Keep quiet for a bit so I can concentrate.”

 

The sadistic grin he’d feared only days before now looked pitiful when all Kaito saw was the deep fear in Ouma’s eyes as the situation spiraled out of his control.


	10. Kiss - HPA AU

Ouma Kokichi loved boys. That wasn’t news to anyone that knew him, whether by him being very vocal about his gayness or from personal experience. That said, he didn’t fall for any pretty boy that he came across (though there were many pretty boys at Hope’s Peak). He liked people that could challenge him. He wanted someone on his level, someone that excited him.

 

Crush of the week? Momota freaking Kaito, either the straightest or most closeted bro in the school. And by week he meant month. And by month he meant “holy fuck I’m head over heels and it Sucks.”

His friends kept telling him to confess. But you don’t just confess to a suspected Straight. Any functional gay would tell you that the correct way to go about it was to drop hints, look for signs of gayness, all that jazz.

 

Of course, being the disaster he was, Kokichi coped with his crush in the worst way possible.

 

Because who had time to think about stupid Momota when he was making out with Amami in the boys’ bathroom before homeroom? When Saihara, while he didn’t want to date, was alright with kissing him behind the bleachers during gym? When Iruma was more than happy to turn her twosome with Kiibo into a threesome? (Who knew the most vulgar girl on the planet’s favorite activity was cuddling?) And he especially didn’t have time to think about anything when things got purely sexual with the curious and experimental Shinguuji.

 

~~And yet he did, clearly.~~

 

“I’m worried about you,” Akamatsu said, pulling him aside after class, “And I’m not the only one. Do you need someone to talk to? If you’re going through something, I’m here for you.”

“I don’t know what you mean, Akamatsu-chan!” He cheerfully feigned, moving to leave.

She shifted to block his path. “You’re kissing literally every other boy in school except Momota-kun, and don’t tell me you don’t like him, because even Yumeno-san agrees and she barely pays attention to all the looks you give him.”

How annoying. “Is not kissing one of the many boys I like a problem? Besides, he wouldn’t want to kiss me anyway.”

“But you want to kiss him.” Akamatsu gave him a pointed look. “I think you should at least talk to him.”

“Hmmm…” He pretended to consider it. “Nah, I don’t think so. I’m good!” It was way less painful to run away from his problems, like this conversation. He ignored her shouting after him and ran off towards the Luckster talent lab.

 

* * *

Kokichi froze as he entered the dorms, immediately spotting Momota leaning against his dorm room, clearly waiting for him to return. He started to inch his way towards Iruma’s room, but today wasn’t his day, apparently. Momota spotted him and practically jumped down the stairs to corner him.

“Hey, I wanna talk to you.”

Kokichi forced a grin onto his face. “Oh? Me? Well, sorry, but I don’t really wanna talk to you.” He turned away, and Momota responded by grabbing his shoulder.

“I know that’s a lie. Shuichi told me, that you’ve been talking about talking to me.”

 

Kokichi scowled; he never did that. Akamatsu and Saihara must’ve teamed up.

Unfortunately, Momota took that scowl as affirmation. “What do you need to talk about? You can tell me anything; you might not be my sidekick, but the Luminary of the Stars is here for everyone.” Without his trademark grin to accompany his self-given title, the genuine concern in his voice shone.

 

Kokichi hated it.

 

“Yeah, because you’d totally understand with your tiny dumb brain,” he snapped, hoping Momota would get annoyed and leave.

“Try me,” he challenged instead, his gaze boring holes into Kokichi. He met that challenge, lies to protect himself at the ready.

“Well, you see, as a Supreme Leader, I have many adoring followers. One of my closer subordinates told me recently that another likes to kiss strangers and pretend he’s kissing me. So I have to figure out how I’m going to let him down gently.” He gave a wide flourish with his arms. “I can’t afford to be tied to someone when my life’s so dangerous after all.”

 

Momota gave him a scrutinizing look, likely trying to gauge how much of his statement was a lie. Kokichi picked at his fingernails to appear bored. “Anyway, so that’s what’s on the mind of the great Ouma Kokichi. Can I go now, or are you going to attempt to advise me.”

If anything, his grip on his shoulder tightened. “Then don’t.”

He frowned. “Don’t what?”

“Don’t kiss other people and pretend they’re me.”

 

His throat clenched, and he forced out a laugh. “Wow, Momota-chan’s super narcissistic! Who’d wanna kiss  _you_?”

“You..?”

“Nuh-uh! No way!”

Momota had the nerve to look disappointed. “Oh.” He released his shoulder and scratched the back of his neck. “This is awkward then.”

Did he want to know why? Fuck. “How so?”

 

He sighed, fidgeting for a moment. “Because I’ve been wanting to kiss you.” When Kokichi didn’t immediately respond, he continued with, “I guess I was just seeing what I wanted to see. Sorry.”

His train of thought turned into a collection of keysmashes and curses. He was so fucked. “Well, I guess if Momota-chan’s sooooo sad that he can’t get any, I wouldn’t mind kissing him.” And before he could reject him or say something stupid, Kokichi pulled him down and pressed their lips together.

 

Momota looked stunned and approximately 1000% more attractive when he pulled back. There’d be no denying the blush on either of their faces if someone walked in on them.

“Ouma, you-”

 

“Aaaaahaha, I, I got somewhere to be!” His chest felt like it was going to explode and he certainly wasn’t going to embarrass himself further. “Have a good night, Momota-chan!” He darted off, fleeing the inevitable “let’s talk about our feelings” talk for the moment. He needed a good… 3 years or so to process that. Most of which would be spent yelling into his pillow and thinking about Momota’s lips and kissing him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just thought I'd put this out there: many of my HPA AUs won't take place in the same universe, unlike the Tragedy AU or more specific ones like the Vamipire AU. I'll make note if they happen to be in the same universe as another short ^^


	11. Underneath - Talent Dev AU

"Why the hell are you following me around," Kaito grumbled, glancing back at Ouma.

"Hmm~ No reason really!" His voice echoed off the walls of Hope's Peak's basement. When he shushed him, not wanting to draw attention from the Monokuma-like monsters, he grinned, but lowered his voice. "I was just wondering how you came across this mess."

"Shuichi found it. And then he told me, obviously."

He hummed again in interest. "So you decided to come investigate on your own then? That's so brave of you, Momota-chan!"

Kaito grit his teeth. "Don't mock me. If you have something to say, say it."

"Ooo, so serious. But yeah that was a lie, I think you're being pretty stupid running around in here by yourself."

Kaito scoffed. "Well, I don't really care what you think." He turned and continued walking. Ouma resumed following him almost immediately. What the hell was his deal?

 

After 10 minutes of silence, he spoke up again. "Say, don't you think it's weird that this huge facility is underneath Hope's Peak? Where we were oh so conveniently taught how to fight as part of the curriculum?"

"I dunno. I mean, there were a ton of fighters in the upper classes. Make sense to just teach it to everyone just in case."

“Ooooor they were planning to weaponize us poor impressionable teenagers,” he proposed, before stilling and grabbing Kaito by the wrist, jerking him back behind a corner. Before he could get upset, Ouma shushed him, gesturing towards the direction they’d been walking in. A few seconds later, one of the bicolor machines tore by, seemingly on patrol.

 

"Fuck, that was close..." Kaito ran his fingers through his hair. "But weaponize us? I mean, maybe someone like Harumaki, but could you seriously see them weaponizing someone like... I dunno, Yumeno?"

"You'd be surprised, Momota-chan. You'd be surprised." He left it at that, leading Kaito in the opposite direction. It took him a moment to realize he was planning on leading him out of the building.

 

"Why are you helping me?"

"Helping you? Don't you mean, 'why are you stopping my investigation?' I mean, that's what I'm doing, so-"

“Cut the BS; you just finished telling me you thought this place was dangerous. You must have some reason for being here, either investigating yourself or...”

Ouma turned to him. “Or what?”

“...Or you were worried about me?”

 

His face twitched. “Hm, no, I don’t think so. I really don’t care what happens to you. I have plenty of subordinates that are much smarter, so you don’t really have a use to me.”

Yeah, sure. He wasn’t stupid, for one, so he certainly wasn’t stupid enough to trust the words of a liar. Especially when his actions were saying the opposite. “If you think I believe that, then you’re the stupid one.”

Ouma gasped dramatically. “My beloved Momota-chan, calling _me_ stupid? Wow, that was totally unexpected!” The sarcasm in his voice was clear. Kaito clenched his fist and ignored him. He’d admit that _maybe_ he’d gotten a bit over his head rushing in, but he wasn’t dead so things weren’t exactly going _bad._

 

All of the sudden, he realized Ouma was still holding his wrist. He stared down at it as they walked, quiet footsteps echoing down the hallway. Should he say something? But Ouma didn’t do things by accident, at least, not that he knew of. Damn, now Kaito felt nervous. He chewed his lip, then made a decision.

 

He twisted his wrist and grabbed Ouma’s hand; if they were going to basically hold hands anyway, they might as well do it properly.

 

Ouma jerked in surprise. “What are you doing?”

“Holding your hand. You were holding my wrist.”

“Only to make sure you didn’t run off!” He tried to jerk his hand away, but Kaito held it tight.

“Well, I guess that goes for the both of us then. You don’t go runnin’ off either, alright?”

 

Ouma huffed. “Can’t believe Momota-chan’s bullying me.” Despite his words, the tension from the surprise eased out, and they resumed walking.

“Don’t be melodramatic.”

 

In response, Ouma squeezed his hand and smiled.


	12. Goodbye - Canon Compliant

His ears were ringing.

 

Kaito fought the urge to close his eyes as the pressed lowered, instinctual terror running through his veins. He knew- no, believed, that Ouma wasn’t going to kill him, but that didn’t stop his heart from threatening to jump out of his chest from how hard it was beating. He dug his fingernails into the palms of his hands, hoping the minute pain would be enough of a distraction that he’d be able to keep himself still for the shot.

 

The breath he knew he was holding finally released itself when the press stopped a short distance above him, barely enough for him to roll out, careful not to disturb his jacket too much. He ran his hand through his hair as he rested on the floor next to the press for a moment, before grunting and pulling himself to his feet. They didn’t have much time left.

 

“Everything good up there? I really don’t wanna do that again,” he called up to Ouma, who just gave him a thumbs up. From the way he was clenching the railing, he was struggling just to stay standing. “Alright, I’m comin’ up then.”

 

He took the steps two at a time, pausing at the top. Ouma looked to him, then back to the camera.

 

“Just remember to press these two buttons at the same time, alright?” He pointed out the start button on the camera and for the press. “If you screw this up, I’ll haunt you.”

 

A shiver ran down his spine. “This- This ain’t the time for jokes about ghosts.”

 

“It wasn't a joke. Anyway, help me down before I die.” Halfway down the stairs, he continued with, “Well, even if I did die from the poison, it's not like Monokuma would know.” Hopefully, yeah. Kaito wasn't sure which was the worse death.

 

He ended up having to lift him and slide him into the gap in the press. Ouma stared at him with tired eyes.

 

Once he was situated, he paused, suddenly too aware that this was the last interaction Ouma was going to have with anyone. “You- You okay?” His voice cracked.

 

Ouma ran his fingers along the galaxy pattern of his jacket. “You’re trembling.”

 

He looked away. “Yeah, well, you are too.” He paused, sighing. “I just... didn’t want to kill you. I’m sorry.”

 

Ouma didn’t respond for a long second, and when he did, it was barely audible. “And I didn’t want to die.” He stared up at the press. “I wonder where I'll go. Hell? Heaven? Nowhere?”

 

He didn't have an answer. He wasn't religious, and he certainly didn't believe in ghosts. Instead, he squeezed Ouma’s shoulder.

 

“See you later.”


	13. breakdown - Tragedy AU

_An arch of electricity tore through the air. His hands shook. The nauseating reek of burnt flesh hit him. He stared. And stared, and stared, and stared and stared and-_

 

Lunch was burning.

 

Kokichi took a deep breath, turning the stove off. No one expected him to be a master chef, so whatever. The charred parts could be scraped off. He turned to grab a bowl to dump it into, only to start when he noticed Momota leaning against the wall, watching him.

“Do you need something, Momota-chan?” He covered up his surprise by continuing his movement, opening the cabinets.

“Yeah, actually. We need to talk about what happened last night.”

Of course. He drummed his fingers against his leg as his eyes blankly searched the shelves. “Hm, no, I don’t think we do.”

“This isn’t up for debate. Either we talk about it, or I’m going to Akamatsu.”

 

He frowned; as Momota figured, Kokichi didn’t want that. If Kaede was told, then Miu would find out, and he didn’t want either of them to have to deal with his **mistake.**

“Fine, but not right now. I don’t-” feel like reliving it twice in one hour, as if he hadn’t been replaying the scene over and over since it happened. “I don’t feel like talking right now.”

He was quiet for a moment. “Alright, tonight. Want to do that milk puzzle we found after lunch?”

 

They quietly worked on it all afternoon until Kaede and Miu returned, prompting Kokichi to retreat to his room for some rest. And by rest, he meant he sat in there for a whole ten seconds before restlessness stirred him into barricading his door with his piles of random belongings. And then lying on the now cleaner section of the floor and staring at the ceiling.

 

At some point, he blinked and it was dark outside. There was noise at his door. Knocking. He tilted his head and watched the door for awhile. Eventually, it opened, only to be met with the pile he made. Frustrated noises came from the person to open it.

“Ouma, seriously? Move your stuff.” Momota shoved his way into the room when it was clear he wasn’t going to do that. “Locking yourself away isn’t going to make me drop this.”

“I know,” his mouth said, “That’s not why I did that.”

“Then why?”

Why? He didn’t know. Geez, Momota was being really high maintenance today.

 

At Kokichi’s inability to answer, Momota sighed and moved to sit beside him. He scratched at his chin for a moment, before beginning the promised talk.

“You know what happened wasn’t your fault, right?”

Perfect opening statement, Momota. He didn’t dignify that with a response.

“I’m not mad or anything, I mean, it, it was an accident. I’m more upset that you put yourself in unnecessary danger.”

“Okay.” What was he supposed to say to that? Apparently not that, from the frown on his face.

“I’m being serious; you could’ve died!”

“Yeah.” This was tiring.

 

Momota opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. “Wait here, okay?”

An unnecessary question; he had no desire to move.

 

When he returned, he was carrying a huge blanket. He quietly set it down and crouched next to Kokichi.

“Is it alright if I touch you?” He asked, voice soft. He nodded in response, and Momota wrapped an arm around his shoulders to pull him into a sitting position, before wrapping the blanket around him. Then he backed off, sitting back down a short distance away.

 

After a few minute of silence, Kokichi began to become aware again. First sensation: his face was wet. That hit his gut hard.

“I killed him,” he croaked out, a wave of emotion flooding his body.

“Accidentally, yeah,” Momota softly responded, fists clenched. “It was self defense; he had a gun.”

His hands shook. “I attacked him; I wanted him to die.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t want that. I know you.” He scooted closer. “It’s going to be okay.”

“I killed someone with Miu’s invention.” His vision was getting blurry. “I- she- she didn’t make it to murder people, I-”

“Iruma’s not stupid. She probably made it that powerful because she knew you’d only use it worst case scenario.” Momota reached forward, hesitated, then continued, taking Kokichi’s hand and squeezing it. “It wasn’t your fault, nor hers. This- It’s a shitty world. He could’ve - and probably would’ve - killed us.”

 

It both reached his mind and didn’t. He felt like his mind was caught in an infinite loop.

“I killed someone,” he sobbed, and buried his face into Momota’s shoulder.

 

He silently wrapped his arms around Kokichi and held him tight.


	14. milk puzzle - Tragedy AU

There was something otherworldly about abandoned malls.

Not that he’d tell Momota, Kokichi thought with a grin as he dug through a pile of sports equipment. Though he was extremely tempted to; it’d be hilarious. “Doesn’t it feel like something’s gonna pop out~?” If he teased him like that, he was guaranteed a good reaction.

 

Hm. No luck here. Sighing, he abandoned the store in favor of checking a different one. Miu asked for (read: demanded) some new electronics to tinker with, rambling something about experimenting with electromagnetic waves. He just hoped she wouldn’t resort to taking apart the stove like she had with all the other appliances at home.

He was shoving a half broken coffee machine into his bag when Momota shouted from across the mall. “Hey, Ouma, c'mere!” From his tone, he wasn’t in danger, so Kokichi took his time finishing and walking over to the area Momota was supposed to be checking.

 

He found him in a relatively clean toy store, untouched by the Tragedy aside from the dried bloodstains and the rotting corpse of a former victim. Which sounded bad, but compared to the rest of the building, it could’ve been way worse.

“Ah, there you are.” Momota noticed his entry, and gestured him over. “Careful, there’s some large pieces of broken glass by the door.”

Gingerly stepping around the glass, he made his way over to where he was, kneeling next to a pile of… jigsaw puzzles? “Is this what you called me over for?”

“Uh, yeah,” he answered, looking sheepish, “Sorry, I just, got really excited about this.” He grabbed one of the boxes and stood, showing it off to Kokichi. “It’s a milk puzzle! And it’s unopened and intact, so all the pieces’ll be here!”

 

Kokichi was fully prepared to shake his head and tease him for his simple-mindedness, but the grin that accompanied his words was blinding. Happiness. Momota’s genuine happiness lit up the room, like the sun burning through a cover of dark clouds. Kokichi felt his breath catch in his throat.

 

Oh.

He was in love with him.

 

 

Momota’s expression shifted as his gaze moved off him suddenly. He grabbed Kokichi by the shoulder and shoved him behind a display shelf, ignoring the startled remark that followed.

The click of a gun being cocked reached his ears.

“Hands up!” A muffled voice shouted. Kokichi peeked between the shelves to see a figure wearing one of those ugly Monokuma masks, pointing a machine gun at Momota.

Momota silently complied, shoulders tense. His fingers dug into the box he still held.

“I heard another voice; where are they?!” He demanded. Kokichi’s head spun as he tried to figure out what to do to get them out of this mess.

“I’m alone; it was a walkie-talkie,” Momota lied, voice shaking.

The man muttered angrily, kicking aside some of the broken glass before demanding more. “Drop all your stuff on the floor and back off!”

 

Kokichi knew these types. Desperate, depraved, merciless. Afraid of the world, but believing they owned it, were entitled to it even. Lawless, chaotic, greedy bastards.

He hated these people the most. He knew this one wouldn’t leave without blood too.

And he knew he wouldn’t let him.

 

“Al-Alright.” Momota slowly rolled his bag off his shoulder. His gaze flickered towards him, worry and fear clear as day on his face. Kokichi clenched his teeth in anger.

His hand went into his coat pocket, fingers grazing again the taser Miu modified. Once it was in his (shaking) hands, he took a deep breath, and gave the shelf a heavy push. It toppled over, crashing into the ground. Momota and the man jerked back in surprise, and Kokichi used his shock to get the jump on him, aiming the taser and pulling the trigger.

 

 

The man screamed, falling, convulsing on the ground. The sound seemed to last for an eternity, and maybe it would. He watched as he went limp, and found himself unable to tear his eyes away from the **corpse.**

 

Kokichi’s mind shut down.


	15. advice - Tragedy AU

“I need to talk to you,” Kaito said, closing the door to Iruma and Akamatsu’s room behind him. Their bedroom doubled as her lab, so this was where she was most often. Scrap pieces of metal and electronics littered every surface aside from the lone keyboard in the corner.

“What, you having trouble getting it up?” She grinned, turning off her soldering iron and removing her goggles. “I’ve got the perfect invention to try out on a virgin like you.”

He ignored her teasing, stepping over a disassembled vacuum cleaner to sit on Akamatsu’s bed. “I need advice on- I-” He scowled, uncertain how to word his sentence. “I’m just... really fucking worried about Ouma and I don’t know what to do.”

 

Her expression turned serious. “He’s been acting fucking weird, yeah. Something happen?”

He chewed the inside of his cheek. “Yeah, dunno if he’d want me sharing it though. But...”

She shook her head, freeing her hair from the ponytail she’d put it in. “Should probably go to Kaede; she’s better at this shit than I am.”

 

“Can’t. I think he’s watching her to see if I tell her anything. She’s already worried enough that he’s avoiding her.” Both in that he was avoiding her because she was worried, and that she was worried that he was avoiding her. It was a mess. He scratched that back of his head, contemplating for a moment, before deciding. “You know that machine gun I brought back last week?”

“Yeah, got some really good shit from the Fuckard Foundation for it. Why?”

 

He took a deep breath. “Well, Ouma killed the person it belonged to. It was an accident; he didn’t know how fucking strong that taser you made was, and- and I think it’s eating at him, but he won’t- he just...” He let out a frustrated sigh.

“Damn,” Iruma responded, leaning back in her chair. She drummed her fingers on her worktable. “Sounds really fucking hard for either of us to just magically fix. Kaede took months to even get close to normal after our parents died in one of those mass shootings. So killing someone yourself...”

He clenched his fists. “Yeah. I still see my grandparents’-” He swallowed. “-their, their dead bodies when I’m tryin’ to sleep sometimes. Hell, I don’t even know if Ouma’s sleeping at all. Half of the time he’s just starin’ at the wall, and the other half he’s restlessly reorganizing everything. He looks like shit too; can’t believe he thinks we believe him when he says he’s fine.”

 

She paused, uncrossing and recrossing her legs before resting her chin on her palm. “Fuck, I don’t think I’ve seen him smile all week. That’s so fucked up. I’ve known him for ten fucking years and he’s always been a lil shit, but the loveable cheerful kind, ya know? He’s a brat but he...” She groaned. “Ugh, I’m not gonna get sappy on you with this crap. Just- wait it out or something. I’m sure you’re doing plenty of that emotional support shit that Kaede loves using you for.”

Kaito gave a weak laugh. “Thanks, but it’s hard to do that when he’ll barely have a conversation with me. Feel like I’ve gone back to square one; pretty sure he hated my guts when we first moved in here.”

“Eh, he’s in a bad place, wouldn’t call that hating you. I mean...” She gave him a sly grin. “I’m sure the sex is great, so even if he hates you, he’ll probably come running back. He’s as much of a cum slut as this gorgeous genius is.”

 

“What-? Where the hell did that come from?!” His face burned, and she laughed.

“C’mon, Kaede’s always talking about how you both need to hook up and fuck already! Well, maybe not with those exact words, but I know what she really means!”

“I’m leaving.”

“H-Hey, wait. I was just joking... kinda. Don’t go, I wanted to show off my new radio system..!”

 

Kaito rolled his eyes lightheartedly and pulled himself up, walking over to listen to her enthusiastic rant, pointedly ignoring when she mentioned that the radio was perfect for phone sex. She didn’t have answers, but hey, he rarely did either. Life was like that sometimes; he just had to hope things would work out.


	16. confession - Tragedy AU

Kaito woke up to find Ouma in his room, folding his shirts. He blinked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes; it was still dark outside, leaving his room near pitch black from the lack of moonlight.

 

“Ouma, what are you doing?” He sat up, pushing his covers off and flicking the lights on.

He gave a vague “I don’t know” noise in response, looking little more than a mindless robot going through the motions as he finished a shirt and moved on to the next one. That was the answer Kaito expected, though he sighed regardless.

“You should go to sleep; it’s still nighttime.” When Ouma didn’t respond, he got up, walking over and kneeling down. He grabbed the shirt in his hands and gently pulled, only releasing it when Ouma’s grip tightened. “Please put it down; my shirts don’t need folding that badly.”

 

“I just wanna do this for a bit,” he finally mumbled. Kaito’s chest tightened at the exhaustion in his voice.

“... Alright. But how about you sit on the bed instead of the floor?” At another uncertain noise, he rephrased his question. “Can I move you to the bed? It’ll be more comfortable.”

Ouma shrugged, and he took that as the best confirmation he was going to get. He picked him up - thankful that he was tiny, but also concerned, because damn it wasn’t right for someone to weigh so little - and placed him on the bed, before grabbing a few of the unfolded shirts for him to fidget with.

“Need anything else?” He asked, and got a small head shake in response. “Let me know if you do, alright?” He made his way to the other side of the bed, lying back down on top of the sheets to stop himself from nodding off.

 

The room was quiet as Ouma sat still, his flow disrupted from being moved. He laid the shirt on the bed and smoothed it until it was mostly flat and creaseless, sighing softly. “I was thinking earlier... About some stuff.”

“Oh?” He tilted his head, giving him his full attention.

“I... When Iruma-chan first gave me the taser, I thought... I was prepared to use it not only on strangers, but on you, if you backstabbed us. I... I would’ve done it without a second thought if I doubted you in the slightest bit.” He swallowed. “And sometimes, I even thought about using it to mess with you, as what I saw as a more or less harmless prank. Horrible, right?”

 

He took a long moment to respond, carefully wording his response. “Ignorance doesn’t make you a horrible person. Wanting to protect yourself and your family, especially in times like these, is normal. You were being understandably cautious, and, well, nothing happened, you didn’t hurt me, despite your brief thoughts to do otherwise, so it’s fine. It’s okay.” He rested his hand on top of Ouma’s, which was clenching the shirt so tightly that his knuckles were white.

 

“I just-” Ouma started, then paused, taking a deep breath. “Why couldn’t we be somewhere safe, like those Hope’s Peak kids that the Future Foundation locked away? Why do we have to fight to survive instead of having a normal childhood? We’re-” His voice broke. “I’m not ready to be an adult. I can barely get out of bed let alone act like a grown up all the damn time.”

“It’s unfair, yeah,” he replied softly, “But we’re still alive, and no one’s expecting you to be the adult. We’re in this together; a buncha kids who don’t know what the fuck we’re doing.”

 

Ouma didn’t reply. Instead, he shifted, intertwining his fingers with the ones on the hand Kaito had placed on his and drawing closer, seeking comfort. He gladly obliged, wrapping his free arm around him and rubbing his back in a hopefully soothing manner. As Ouma’s breathing evened out, he dared to lower himself back down, tiredness creeping at the edges of his vision.

 

“Thanks, Momota-chan,” he whispered into the crook of his arm, “I’m glad you’re here with us. With me.” He squeezed his hand, and Kaito mimicked his gesture.

 

“Me too, Ouma. Me too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone curious, I have these Tragedy AU ficlets in in-universe chronological order [right here](https://trans-shuichisaihara.tumblr.com/tragedy). At the moment, they're more or less in the order they've been posted in, but as I write more that probably won't continue to happen lmao


	17. Kids - HPA AU

“You ever think ‘bout having kids?” Kaito started, and Kokichi glanced over.

“Sometimes, but adoption’d be a pain. We’re both busy enough as it is.”

He sighed. “Yeah, that’s true. Could get a surrogate though.”

“Oh? Sounds like you already have someone in mind.”

 

Damn, he was always quick to pick up on that. “Uh, yeah, well, I was just talking to Iruma 'bout kids and it just… came up I guess.”

Kokichi snorted. “A kid with Iruma-chan? That implies one of us would actually sleep with her.”

He rolled his eyes. “Oh don’t be a lil shit, you’ve had sex with her before. 'Sides, artificial insemination’s a thing.”

“Preeetty sure she wouldn’t agree to that; afraid of doctors, remember?”

He winced. “Ah, right. Well, still, she said she would help, uh, well, with more vulgarity and shit, but only if you wanna or something.” Shit, he was stumbling over his words. Fucking hell.

 

Kokichi hummed, clicking at his computer. There was silence for a few minutes, and Kaito assumed the conversation was over and went back to watching TV.

 

“So are you jealous Akamatsu-chan’s having a kid then?” He finally questioned, spinning back around to face him. “You know she’ll let us babysit whenever if you want.”

“You mean they’ll let  _me_  babysit while Harumaki’s resisting the urge to strangle you for coming anywhere near their kid,” he joked with a chuckle, before quieting down. “But I guess a bit. Just makes me think 'bout how old we’re gettin’.”

“You say that like we’re 40; 23 isn’t old at all, Kai-chan.”

“Shut it, you know what I meant.”

“So we’re having two kids then?”

“Huh?”

 

“I mean-” Kokichi leaned back, resting his foot on his leg and intertwining his fingers together. “If we only have one kid with her, or anyone else, one of us will miss out on all the excitement. Don’t you think that’s unfair?”

“I don’t think that's how that works, but if you want two that’s fine with me.” Far better than he thought the conversation was headed, that was for sure.

“So, you do know she’s not guaranteed to get pregnant first time you fuck her, right? And Kiiboy’s gotta be okay with it all too, though hopefully he doesn’t get super attached or something, else they might have to move in with us and this apartment’s already crowded.”

 

Shit. He was right. “Well, uh, it’s only crowded because you never get rid of anything.”

“Sorry, can’t hear you over the sound of 'two bedroom, one bathroom’. Let’s go apartment hunting- oh, or even better, house hunting!” He spun back around and quickly pulled up a real estate website, scrolling through the listings enthusiastically.

“Alright, alright, calm down.” He shook his head with a smile and rose to look over his shoulder.

 

“Ooh, this one has five bedrooms. We could invite Saihara-chan over whenever.”

“Hey, we both know he wouldn’t be sleeping in a different room; you just want an excuse to keep a room solely for your junk.”

“Kai-chan’s so rude; the extra room’s now for you when I kick you out for being mean,” he teased, copying the address and pasting it into a blank notepad.

“Put that back; we only need four bedrooms at most.”

 

Kokichi ignored him in favor of pulling up another five bedroom house. “Ooh, the living room is so nice. Wouldn’t your model spaceships look good over here?” He pointed to an area, and Kaito paused.

“Uh, I guess so. I kinda like them in our bedroom though.”

“So what you’re saying is that I’m free to claim the future shelf going there for my yugioh cards? Thanks, Kai-chan! Love you!” He copied the address of that one as well while Kaito sputtered.

“H-Hey, don’t I get a say in where we’re moving?!”

“Let me guess: you want a room with one of those ceiling windows for stargazing, right?” He clicked on one of the preview pictures. “Look, the master bedroom has one, it’s basically perfect!”

 

Dammit, that was really nice. He couldn’t deny that he wanted that now. “Fine. But can you try not to blow through our savings? Just because we’re Hope’s Peak graduates doesn’t mean we’ll be swimming in money forever.”

“I’m not that irresponsible, Kai-chan. Don’t worry, and help me decide on when to go tour the place.”

“Yeah yeah, fine.”


	18. Cold - Canon Divergent

Of all the problems that could arise from being trapped in an Exisal with Kaito, him snoring definitely wasn’t on the list. Kokichi wasn’t even sure how he managed to fall asleep in the first place; his injuries had to be paining him as much as Kokichi’s were, if not more due to the poison in his veins. Maybe he was going numb already and decided it would be better to die in his sleep? Probably not, seeing as he declared he wasn’t dying until the trial was over - really, how stupid could he be? - but who knew.

Oh well. At least the snoring was better than him coughing or the literal dead silence of him ceasing to breathe.

Boredom consumed his mind as the snoring became monotonous background noise, and he idly picked at the slowly scabbing hole in his right arm. Why was the Exisal so cold? Furthermore, why did he let Kaito convince him to flush his shirt down the toilet? It wasn’t likely that they’d even notice it was clogged, so now that he thought about it, it seemed like a pointless action.

Memorizing the placement and functions of the various buttons lost its appeal after half an hour and Kokichi resumed his pouting and futile attempts to warm himself. He was tempted to “accidentally” elbow Kaito and wake him up to demand his shirt. He was hoping that the enclosed space would heat up due to their two bodies expelling warm air, but it was happening too slowly if at all. Ugh. Time to count how long his snores were and the gap between them or something.

The shivering was making the hole in his back ache.

In his shifting about, he happened to brush up against Kaito and cursed when his first thought was that he was pleasantly warm. There was no way he was going to be lured into cuddling with a guy who 1. hated him and 2. stunk like any teenage boy would after two days of not showering. Not that he probably smelled much better, but he was nose blind to that so it didn’t count. He filled his head with petty reasons not to act on his gay-fueled impulse and wiped the blood off his left hand onto Kaito’s pants; he didn’t react.

Another half hour passed. He was beyond bored and inching into vaguely tired. Still cold. Still ignoring gay thoughts about how attractive Kaito was and how even leaning against him would be warm. He groaned, biting the already worn down nails of his right hand. This was so stupid. Why was the world against him today? First Maki tried to kill him, then Kaito ruined his plan by practically choking him with the antidote to force him to take it instead, and now this.

Fuck it, they were both probably going to be dead in less than a day anyway.

“If you wake up, I swear I’ll kill you,” he quietly lied for good measure, before cautiously leaning into Kaito’s side. He was glad that they agreed to sit with their wounded arms facing the outside; it was much more comfortable and he didn’t have to worry about their open wounds touching. If Kaito’s illness wasn’t airborne, he certainly didn’t want that mess of a disease entering through his bloodstream.

His eyelids felt heavy. With a last thought of preparing a lie for if Kaito woke up first, Kokichi dozed off.


	19. Surprise - Spaceship AU

The universe was endlessly vast.

 

That’s what Momota would always say, and Kokichi finally had to admit that he was right. The distance between the stars seemed insignificant on Earth, but out in the open reaches of space, the amount of empty nothingness became incredibly noticeable.

 

As did his growing boredom with it all.

 

It was like being stuck in purgatory. Time had ceased to have meaning with no way to measure the days aside from clocks and artificial lighting that attempted to mimic 24 hour days. It was no wonder they wanted them to stay in cold sleep; the less time awake, the more time until they went insane. With the world ending and all, they didn’t think to put a wide variety of activities to do on the Ark.

They really should’ve stayed asleep, huh. He wanted to punch whoever had suggested going against Headmaster Naegi’s wishes, but, well, that’d been most of them, including himself. They were all too wary of sabotage after growing up during the Tragedy and hearing the horrific stories about the events that occurred in the original Hope’s Peak. It was too late to turn back though; Iruma had already turned all the pods into scrap metal from her own boredom.

 

There was only one thing he could do to stop himself from banging his head against the wall in frustration: annoying the shit out of everyone.

 

“Hey, Momota-chan, did you see that alien spaceship we passed by yesterday?” He sprawled out on the floor of the Ultimate Astronaut’s lab and the Ark’s control room, disrupting the piles of blankets and pillows that had been brought in by the others who were too lonely to sleep alone in the dorms (see: Saihara and Akamatsu). Not him though. He slept in his own room, totally not with Iruma, because he wasn’t a desperate whore like she was and would never stoop to that level out of loneliness. Never.

 

“Wha-?!” He tensed up, spinning around to face him. “I don’t have time for your lies right now, I’m trying to check the maps for habitable planets in this or a nearby system.”

“But that’s what you did yesterday toooo,” he whined, “Just give it up for now and entertain me before I start my very own killing game out of boredom!”

“Dude. Not funny,” Momota hissed, shooting him a glare, “You’ve got plenty of random shit in your lab, why don’t you use it for once.”

“Iruma-chan stole all the good stuff!” As in, he gave it all to her to upgrade and he wasn’t sure if he was going to get them back anytime soon. “There’s nothing to do!”

 

“Then start doing sit-ups!” He snapped in response, “Can’t be bored if you’re tired.” He got up, clearly intending to take his maps elsewhere.

“Come count my reps then! I’m too incompetent to do them myself!” A blatant lie, and Momota gave him a deadpan look, clearly not believing him for one second. But still, he came over and nudged his legs into position, before kneeling down and sitting with his knees on Kokichi’s feet.

“There, now do 50 so I can go get dinner.”

 

Kokichi wasn’t strong, but he wasn’t weak either. 50 wouldn’t kill him but he wasn’t in the mood to actually work out. He just wanted Momota’s attention, so he’d take as long as he pleased. Pretending to struggle was fun, especially since he was over-exaggerating and Momota knew it.

 

“If you don’t start doing actual sit-ups, I’m leaving,” he threatened after 20 half-assed attempts, his brows furrowed in annoyance.

“Ugh, okayyy,” he responded, internally grinning as a great idea surfaced. A sure-fire way to get an amazing reaction, and all he had to do was an actual sit-up, just like Momota wanted. He paused, and then used his reserved energy to quickly pull himself up, giving Momota a peck on the lips.

 

As he expected, the reaction was priceless.

 

Momota shot backwards in surprise, shouting a wordless exclamation. Kokichi grinned, springing to his feet and keeping his distance just in case.

“What the hell, Ouma?!” He covered his mouth, face bright red.

“Whoopsie, my bad! Looks like I overshot that time, huh?” He felt giddy; this was the most excitement he’d had all week.

“Don’t fucking lie! That was on purpose, wasn’t it?!” He pulled himself up, clenching the fist that wasn’t covering his mouth tightly. Was it time for a wacky chase scene? Kokichi hoped so; tag was fun too.

 

“Maybe it was, so what?” He felt his grin grow wider. “16 horny teens trapped in space, why not just start a massive orgy where we all mess around with each other?” They had a freaking love hotel almost right across from the dorms, no one could tell him that this wasn’t expected out of them.

“Why not?” Momota echoed, looking perplexed. Kokichi expected some sort of rant to follow the brief moment of silence in return for his statement, or perhaps a punch to the face for his actions.

 

Instead, his expectations were destroyed by Momota roughly grabbing his shoulder and leaning down to mash their lips together again.

 

There was a huge difference between a peck on the lips and actually kissing, and god Kokichi was a lonely touch-starved gay and his heart was skipping beats. Desperate wasn’t his middle name but damn, on this hell called a spaceship it might as well been. He threw his free arm around Momota’s shoulder and pulled, kissing back. It was almost painfully obvious that Momota’d never kissed anyone before, but he didn’t give a damn.

 

After a long and - in his opinion - enjoyable minute, they parted, Momota almost immediately releasing him and covering his mouth defensively again. “Shit...” Red would be an understatement of how dark his cheeks were flushed. Kokichi imagined he wasn’t much more composed when he felt like he was going to explode from the butterflies in his stomach.

 

And he was completely at a loss of what to say.

 

“... Wanna do that again?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I write more, it's clear that I'm eventually going to get into nsfw territory, so like. Should I post those in this collection and bump the rating up to E or put them in a separate fic? Slapping an E rating on something that's 80% T would feel weird and I don't wanna scare anyone off lmao
> 
> (also it's technically Kaito's birthday in Japan rn so!! happy birthday to my favorite boy in the world)


	20. New Direction - Tragedy AU

Kokichi spent the morning lying in bed.

His sleep had been better than usual, still broken from waking up multiple times, but he got enough rest that he wasn’t physically tired.

 

Which was why it was so frustrating that he couldn’t get up.

 

Logically, he could, but his limbs felt numb. Forcing himself up was the most unappealing action in the world, and it wasn’t because his bed was comfy. He was actually cold, the winter outside leaking in through the cracks in the walls. If he got up, he could go down to the kotatsu, but it might as well been on the other side of the world for how far it felt.

Oh well. It’d be a waste of electricity anyway.

 

“Hey,” Momota greeted, knocking on the door to further announce his entry, “Brought you up some breakfast.”

A wave of irritation hit him. “I’m not hungry.”

He remained unfazed as he put the bowl of rice on the nightstand. “Well, try to eat it anyway. It won’t hurt you.” He turned away, and Kokichi reached out to nudge the bowl to the far end of the table, away from him.

 

Momota began to pick up dirty clothes off the floor, shoving them into a garbage bag. Laundry. The worst chore. Just thinking about it made him exhausted. “Do you have anything in your room I should grab?” He asked, performing the sniff test on a shirt he was uncertain about.

“No,” he replied curtly. He’d been wearing the same clothes for a week, not that he’d admit that.

As if reading his thoughts, however, Momota tossed over a fresh pair of clothes. “Get changed then; this load’s still a bit small.”

He scowled, reluctantly propping himself up. “Is this your underwear?”

“Yeah, so?” When Kokichi didn’t respond, he sighed. “If it bugs you, I’ll go find one of yours. It is clean though.”

“… Fine.” He slowly peeled his clothes off, balling each article up and tossing them at Momota, who was politely looking away. None of his shots hit their target, flopping uselessly on the ground halfway. Big mood.

 

“You decent?” He asked after a few minutes. The answer was kinda; he’d only pulled the shirt and boxers on, too tired to bother with pants.

“Mostly.” He let himself fall back onto the pillows. Momota finished picking up the dirty clothes and turned back, frowning when his eyes fell on the bowl. He walked over and moved it back to its original spot.

“Stop babying me,” Kokichi snapped, pushing it back away. It fell over from the force, spilling its contents across the nightstand and onto the floor.

“Seriously?” He sighed, kneeling down to pick up the mess. “I’m not babying you, I’m just trying to make sure you don’t waste away.”

He clenched the bedsheets in his fists. “Well I don’t need you to do that.”

Momota didn’t respond. Kokichi huffed, twisting himself further in the covers and turning away from him, trying not to let getting ignored get to him. ~~It didn’t work.~~

 

Some time passed. Finally, the bed moved, compressing under Momota’s weight as he sat down. “I want to take you to see a therapist.”

“… What?”

“A therapist. Therapy.”

A deep fear bubbled in him as he rolled back over, looking to Momota. He wasn’t looking at Kokichi, instead staring out the window. “I don’t… I don’t need that. I’m fine.”

“You’re not,” he replied, “You haven’t left the house all month. You’ve only left bed half of that.”

“It’s only the 12th,” he weakly argued back, and Momota finally turned towards him, eyes tired.

“And soon it’ll be the 13th, and the 20th, and the 30th. I just…” He audibly swallowed, eyes glistening. “I want to help you, but this is above us.”

 

“I don’t need help. I’m working on it,” he said, words ringing hollow. Kokichi looked away, unable to keep looking at Momota’s sad eyes. “Besides, it’s not like there’s any therapists still around.”

“The Future Foundation has some-”

“And they only help people that are useful to them. They didn’t want me at the beginning of the Tragedy, and they’re certainly not going to want me now.” Not that he wanted to work with those corrupt bastards-

“They agreed to admit you for treatment.”

 

… Admit? He shot up, mind racing as panic swirled in his chest. “What? Are, are you sending me away? I’m, I’m trying, I really am, please don’t-”

Momota’s eyes went wide. “Shit, no, uh, fuck, that’s not what I meant at all. I just- I just scheduled an appointment, if you’ll go. I’ll be there with you, and I promise you’re not staying with ‘em.” He pulled his legs up onto the bed, moving closer. “I know you’re doing your best. No one’s upset at you, and no one wants you gone.”

His soft voice calmed some of the anxiety that had arisen. Kokichi took a deep breath; at least that had kickstarted his mind into working a bit more normally now. “What did they ask for in return?” There was no way they could give out free therapy. Not when the entire world was traumatized.

 

He hesitated.

 

Kokichi frowned. “Don’t tell me you agreed to work for them. You know their military’s a huge death trap.”

Momota scratched the back of his head. “They’re… They’re working on setting up some sort of…” He paused, searching for the right word. “Some sort of network linking independent communities to each other and to the cities they’re restoring. We scavenge, they buy, same as it’s always been, but they’ll also be setting up official trading hubs.

“Honestly though, even without the therapy, the deal was really good. Just for taking part, they’ll send us food and supplies. And if we ever have to leave here, the communities they’re setting up around the hubs’ll have actual protection, along with reliable electricity, plumbing, hell, even access to the internet.”

“… So what’s the catch?”

 

He sighed. “They’ll want to document all of us. You know, for when society’s reformed and all that shit. Honestly, nothing we’ll have to worry about for a few years I’m guessing. Oh, and they’re still really interested in Iruma’s work, but they’re fine with her just sending in blueprints.”

“Sounds like a bunch of B.S.,” he replied bluntly, “I don’t trust any of that.”

“Yeah, I know, and I don’t trust them either…” He looked away, fists clenched tight in his lap. After a moment, he continued, “I wish I could say my reasons were entirely selfless, but… I need some sort of obtainable goal to work towards. I can’t stand feeling so… so _stuck_ ; I wanna make a difference in the world.”

 

Kokichi knew that feeling. It was a common feeling among the four of them, the would-be Ultimates with no foundation to further their talents on. “You sound pretty set on your decision, then.”

He nodded. “I won’t force you along, but I’ve already accepted the offer. Akamatsu and Iruma are fine with it too, even encouraged it. Winter’s gonna make things rough after all.”

So he was the last to know. Somehow, that hurt. He leaned into Momota, letting out a small huff. “Well, I guess if you all think it’s good, I’ll play along.”

He smiled at that, some of the worry in his forehead smoothing out. “Thanks.” He licked his lips nervously, moving his hand closer to Kokichi’s. “And the therapy..?”

 

He huffed again, intertwining their fingers. “When’d you schedule it?”


	21. Tentative Progress - Canon Divergent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part of the same timeline as chapter 9, a few weeks afterward.

"This is starting to become a problem, Shuichi."

Kaito's words were met with a blank, confused stare. "What is?"

 

He gestured to the room, the bathroom filled with things belonging in a bedroom. Blankets, pillows, clothes, hell even food. "You're basically livin' in here; can't you tell that's not healthy?"

Shuichi drew back, looking like he was trying to hide in the blanket he had wrapped around his shoulders. "I just feel safer in here. I, I'm not in here all the time."

"Harumaki says she hasn't seen you since Tuesday. And I know you hate the therapist, but-"

 

"I'm sorry," he interrupted, softly, "I'll, I'll talk to Harukawa-san later, I promise, but I have nothing to say to the staff here. I just want them to leave us alone." He turned away, retreating into his makeshift bed to escape the conversation.

In the doorway, Ouma gave him an "I told you so" look. Though he'd been the one to bring up Shuichi's behavior to Kaito, he vocalized having no intent of stopping it. Of course, that could be a lie; he was still hovering around, almost as if he was concerned.

 

He looked back, bracing himself for another attempt. "You know they're not going to let us leave until we're _all_ better; that includes you."

"They don't care about our wellbeing," Shuichi mumbled back, "They just want to know why- _how_ we ruined their game."

How. That was still the question on Kaito's mind too, the answer known only by the one who wouldn't share. He wanted so desperately to ask, to ask why he wrote such morbid things in his journal, but asking would be admitting to invading his privacy, betraying his trust. The guilt ate at him in the nights when Shuichi would cling to him as if he was his lifeline.

 

He shook off those thoughts. He needed to focus. "If they didn't care, they'd've just thrown us back in."

"The audience wouldn't like that," he sighed in response, "They celebrated our escape as a massive victory for 'Hope'." His words were laced with a venom that brought to mind eyes filled with hatred.

"Just give it up, Momota-chan. You're not going to be able to talk sense into Saihara-chan."

An anger boiled in his chest. "I won't give up! Not until I make him see that not everyone is going to hurt us!"

 

Ouma narrowed his eyes, his lips curled up somewhere in between a sneer and a grimace. "And to him, that's a **lie**."

 

Kaito frowned. "A lie?"

"No." Shuichi sat up straighter. "As I said, they don't care about hurting us. But I'm not going to cooperate with the people behind the game that killed our friends and so many more."

Ouma tilted his head, humming softly. "So, where did you learn about Team Danganronpa in the first place?"

He didn't answer, looking away again. Ouma sighed in annoyance.

 

An epiphany hit him. Kaito's breath caught, and he lowered himself down to sit beside his sidekick. "You're afraid of something. Something other than them."

Perhaps that was too assertive; Shuichi flinched, answering Kaito's statement with a quick denial. Ouma finally pulled himself into the room fully, closing the door behind him.

He dropped his voice to hopefully be more soothing. He didn't like scaring him. "C'mon Shuichi, how many times I gotta say it. Your problems are my problems. You can trust me; I won't laugh."

“I, I know that, but...” He paused, resting his chin on his knees. “I trust you, but I can’t, I can’t talk about it. It’s just a thought, it’s nothing real.” It sounded more like he was trying to convince himself than Kaito, swallowing down the emotions that had risen to the surface. Maybe it was his own familiarity with the feeling than sudden detective-like perception that allowed him to notice it.

 

But if he wouldn’t talk, there was nothing that could be done. He couldn’t fight Shuichi’s battles for him, and he could only offer support to someone willing to accept it. He thought he was going to end up proud the first time Shuichi declined support, from the way things had been going, but now... Now, he just felt confused and hurt.

He glanced over to Ouma, almost hoping he would have something useful to say.

“Hm, wellllll, I dunno; they did a preeeeetty good job making us believe all that stuff in the Killing Game was real, so maybe you shouldn’t underestimate your own thoughts.” He pulled himself off the wall, walking over to plop himself down in-between the two of them. “But if you trust Momota-chan too much to tell him, maybe you can tell someone you don’t trust as much and he can pretend not to listen.” That was a unique way of putting it. Should he be insulted?

Shuichi shifted uneasily. “That’s... not the problem.”

“And I think you’re a bad liar, Saihara-chan, sooooo-”

 

Kaito rolled his eyes and cut him off by covering his mouth. “Ignore him. Just know I’m here if you want to talk, al- Ouma, you fucker!” He jerked his hand away at the slobbery sensation of spit being licked onto his hand.

The brat fucking giggled at his annoyance, maneuvering himself to drape across Shuichi’s feet. “You should’ve seen that coming, Momota-chan! But anywayyyy, my offer from earlier’s still open whenever you’re ready, Saihara-chan. But I guess we’ll continue to keep you company in this bathroom even if it’s kinda a dump.”

Shuichi swallowed. “You don’t, you don’t need to do that.”

“I’m not hearing a ‘no, please go away’ so I guess I’m staying!”

 

Kaito wiped his hand on his pants, leaning forward to roll Ouma away from them. “Don’t be annoying.” He had to say though, he liked this Ouma a lot more than the one that laughed gleefully as he submitted to the Killing Game to preserve his own life. The one that lashed out and terrorized them to cement the idea that he was the mastermind into their heads.

He was sure Shuichi felt the same, as he weakly objected to Kaito’s label of annoying. “It’s fine, Momota-kun, he’s not... He’s fine.”

 

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Kaito was thankful that Ouma knew how to shut up on occasion, because there was tons of things nagging at him that he wanted to think about. One of which that he wanted to address now. “Y’know, I wouldn’t, uh, I’d be fine if you wanted to call me ‘Kaito’ instead. Since, you know, I’m callin’ you ‘Shuichi’ and all...” He scratched the back of his head, trying to ignore the surprised look on his face.

“O-Okay, um, Kaito,” Shuichi quietly stuttered out, as if he was saying something wrong. On the ground in front of them, Ouma pouted.

“When do I get to be on a first name basis with my beloved Momo-chan and Saihara-chan?”

“What the hell’d you just call me?!”

“Ooooo, Momo-chan’s so scaryyyy, protect me!” He bounced to his feet, leaping across the room to grab one of the pillows to fling in Kaito’s direction. It hit his shoulder with little to no force, but that didn’t stop him from flinging it back with far more force than necessary.

On the sideline of their spontaneous pillow fight, Shuichi visibly relaxed, letting out a small chuckle.

 

Maybe they could chalk this up to a victory after all.


	22. Day 1 - Pregame - VR AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hell yeah it's [oumota week!!](https://oumotaweek.tumblr.com/post/172829699191/here-are-the-official-prompts-for-oumota-week) I'm so ready ~~okay that's a lie BUT im really excited okay~~

_“… estimates put the number applying around eight-hundred thousand, a record high. Team Danganronpa has declined stating their strategy for filtering through the large quantity of-”_

 

Kokichi turned the TV off as the front door opened. Peeking over the worn couch, he was relieved to see it was only Kaito. Not that it would ever be anyone else. Hopefully. “Welcome home.”

“Hey, I’m back,” he greeted in response, kicking his shoes off and wandering further into their small apartment, “Though only for a bit; I’m gonna be heading out again soon. Like in an hour or two.”

“Oh.” That was disappointing. “Come sit with me?”

Kaito silently obliged and even did one better, scooping him up before plopping back down. “So, what’ve you been doing? Finish that, uh, that test?”

“Yeah,” he mumbled into Kaito’s chest, “’s really boring.” Nothing was interesting when he was alone in the apartment. But that was just how things had to be.

 

They sat in comfortable silence for a while, until Kaito finally shifted under him, maneuvering him off. “Listen, I… I got a new job. Er, more like an internship. A temporary one, but it’ll pay well.”

He blinked. “Okay?” He sensed a big “but” hanging at the end of that sentence and he didn’t like it. “So..?”

He huffed. “So, I’m gonna be gone for a month. Can you manage a month?”

Nausea struck. “No.”

He groaned. “Well, I, you’re, you’re gonna have to. Please.”

 

Kokichi’s hands shook. “Why? Can’t, can’t you just-” keep doing what we’ve been doing, don’t change, don’t leave, don’t leave him, don’t abandon him, don’t- “Can’t you just not go? I, I mean, what am I going to do for food?”

“I just went shopping yesterday, there’s easily a month’s worth of food in there, if not two. And if you seriously blow through it, my grandma’s email’s on the fridge; she has a key, so you can just hide in our room or something while she restocks, I dunno.”

His throat swelled to the point he could barely breathe. “Kaito…”

 

“Kokichi, look at me.” He intertwined their fingers, eyes soft. “You know we can’t continue living like this. And the only way that’s gonna change is if we can get some cash to make it happen. So I gotta do this. But I promise, nothing’s gonna happen to you while I’m gone. The worse that’ll happen is you’ll get bored and lonely, and I’m sorry, but this is more important.”

“What could be more important than us,” Kokichi wanted to respond with, but he couldn’t do anything except feebly wipe away the incoming tears. Kaito let him cry, but when the tears were gone, so was he.

 

He wished he could’ve kept crying forever. Maybe then he wouldn’t have left.

 

* * *

Five antagonizing days passed. It was only on day three did he realize Kaito didn’t mention anything about keeping in contact with him via phone or the internet. Of course, that caused him to panic. He hadn’t needed to call Kaito in forever. In fact, he had to spend a few hours even locating his phone, only to find it dead and then spend another few hours finding its charging dock.

 

He was immediately greeted with a voicemail upon calling the number he had for Kaito.

 

He hadn’t been so stressed since the last time he attempted to go outside. Which was almost becoming an appealing option, if it meant he could figure out what the hell was going on. “Month long internship where I can’t contact you”? The more he thought about it, the more he couldn’t believe how stupid he was to let Kaito run away to- to wherever he went.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to go outside to find the answer. On day six, the answer was found under a pile of unpaid hospital bills. An application for Danganronpa 53. He wanted to tear it in half, but he forced himself to read it first. It wasn’t an acceptance letter, just a normal application that would lead to an interview, but he knew Kaito. Kaito shined brightly, too brightly. They’d be all over him.

 

He printed out a blank application and started writing.

 

* * *

Three days later, they called.

The interview was at 3:30pm. He had 7 hours to prepare himself mentally. Unfortunately, that meant leaving immediately so that he could deal with the fallout that was going to result from attempting to leave the apartment by himself for the first time in- in- how long had it been? The time blurred together in his mind.

 

Outside the apartment was loud. Not the good comforting loud that was Kaito’s entire existence. The hustle and bustle of daily life was always worse around Danganronpa season. Which was more or less always. The show ran every three months; a month for signups, a month for the Game, and a month to cool down and profit off the Survivors. It was a disgusting cycle, but most of society loved it. It was all he could do to block it out the best he could with noise blocking headphones and a wide brimmed cap.

The subway was the worst. He was stuck next to some overly enthusiastic DR fan, excitedly talking about how his own interview was at 5. How he wanted to commit a murder and be executed for it. It sickened Kokichi that such blatant suicidal ideation was overlooked because it happened to fall in the same sentence as Dangan-fucking-ronpa.

 

He wished his anger won out against his anxiety. He had a few choice words for the Team DR staff, but once he was in the interview room, his body and mind felt like they shut down.

“So, why should we pick you for Danganronpa?”

Why? Surely the correct answer was “I don’t want to be in your fucked up show.” Instead, Kokichi answered with, “My boyfriend Kaito applied.” Way to be blunt, Kokichi.

“Oh?”

He swallowed, trying again. “Kaito applied, and I know he got in. So I want to go with him.”

 

The interview team seemed amused at his response. A bored looking old man spoke up. “The contestant lists are confidential and undetermined until all the applicants have been gone through. I highly doubt-”

“No. I know he got in. He wouldn’t settle for anything less than the universe if he wanted it bad enough.”

A women to his left softly laughed. “So, you want to win it with him then? Hunger Games victory? We can’t even tell you how many couples we get wanting to do the same thing.”

He shook his head. “I know Kaito won’t win. He’s exactly the type of person that gets set up to die in your plots. So, I want to join so that I can die with him.” He paused. “That’s it really.”

 

A boy perhaps a bit older than him hummed. “Why do you want to die with him? Is it that appealing?” The old man gave him a withering look that was ignored.

He mulled the question over. “A world without Kaito… I suppose, in your words, that would be a world without hope to me. I have no future.”

“How can you say that with such certainty?”

“Because I’ll be dead in a month either way. I was made to be alone, but Kaito thought differently. He became important to me, and when my life began to crumble, he was there to support me.” He dug his fingernails into his palms. “So I decided I would die with him so he doesn’t have to be alone like I was. I don’t care what you turn me into, I just want to be with him until the very end.”

 

“Is that the truth?” A bespectacled girl in the center asked.

 

“I never lie.”


	23. Day 2 - Birthday - Tragedy AU

Kokichi woke up knowing exactly what day it was and having no intention of celebrating it.

Why would he, when there was more important things to worry about than throwing himself a birthday party that would only have two guests. Two, because Momota wasn't invited. He didn't want a stranger intruding on something so personal.

 

And yet, here he was, intruding.

 

"Hey, happy birthday," he called as Kokichi was walking down the stairs, almost causing him to stumble in surprise. He considered ignoring the greeting all together, but decided to let the conversation continue.

"Hm? What makes you think it's my birthday?"

"Akamatsu and Iruma said it was."

"Oh, well, that's a lie. My birthday is actually April 1st."

Momota looked amused. "Yeah, sure. Anyway, your present's in the fridge."

 

Kokichi didn't want a present from him, much less give him the satisfaction of accepting it, but curiosity got the better of him. He wandered over to the fridge, opening it up. Inside was a small chocolate cake.

He frowned. "Where did you get this?"

Momota scratched at his stubbly jaw. "Er, well, I made it. With some help from Akamatsu."

Okay, so he could probably trust it not to be poisoned. Maybe. "Why?"

"Why?" He echoed. "Uh, I wanted to? It might be the apocalypse, but that doesn't mean you can't get something nice for your birthday."

 

How... simple. "Well, I didn't want a cake. I don't like cake," he declared, slamming the fridge door closed.

Momota sighed. "I know that's also a lie, but I'll bite; what do you want."

"How about you jump off the roof? That'll be exciting!" And if he breaks his leg, no one'll give him scolding looks when he says he wants Momota to leave.

"No thanks. Try aiming for less harmful to my well-being."

Damn. "Okay, well, how about you be my servant for the day? I wanna be pampered."

He paused, appearing to consider it. "As long as you don't ask me to do anything weird."

 

Wow. He wasn't expecting Momota to take it seriously. But if he was going to offer himself on a silver platter, Kokichi wasn't going to let the opportunity go to waste. "You can start byyyyy..." What was the worst, most time consuming chore on his to-do list? "Doing my laundry." Yeah, he had a ton of that. "Honestly, anything that's on the ground to the right of my bed's probably dirty." He clapped his hands. "Chop chop! Your king waits for no one, Momota-chan."

Momota rolled his eyes. "Yeah, alright. Don't think this'll be a regular thing though; birthday perk only, Ouma."

"That's Ouma-sama to you! If you don't address me properly, I will banish you from my kingdom!"

"You're pushing your luck." He pushed himself out of his chair, waving him off to head upstairs.

 

It was once he was out of sight that Kokichi realized he was smiling. A genuine smile. Because of Momota. Ew. He quickly dropped it, turning back to the fridge and opening it. The cake... actually looked really good. Hopefully he wasn't anywhere as bad of a cook as Miu.

He pulled it out, removing the plastic lid. He almost didn't want to touch it without the others around to watch, but if it was poisoned, it was best to die with no one watching. He gave himself a generous quarter of the cake. If he was going to go out, it was going to be in a blaze of glory. Sweet, chocolaty glory.

 

He was probably being too over-dramatic over a cake, huh.

 

The first bite didn't immediately kill him, so that was nice. Once, Miu had made something so spicy he couldn't taste anything for a week. In comparison to that, it was pretty decent. Maybe even good. He still wouldn't be giving his regards to the chef; it was probably Kaede's handiwork that was saving his tongue.

He blinked, and the slice was gone. He sighed, setting his plate aside and pulling his legs to his chest. 17 years of life, and _this_ is what he got. Living with his childhood friends and a stranger in a run-down house, barely scrapping by because a bunch of talented teenagers decided to cause the end of the world. Something as simple as chocolate cake was a commodity, and he just tore through a good fourth of it without second thought.

 

Life sucked.

 

"So, you ate it after all," Momota commented, standing at the bottom of the stairs with a laundry bag over his shoulder.

"Yeah, it tasted like shit," he replied, hoping it didn't sound as pathetically weak to him as it did to himself.


	24. Day 3 - Lies | Honesty - VR AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> post-game VR au, takes place in the same universe as ch22 (day 1) but isn't required to read to understand this ^^

Darkness.

His consciousness flickers into awareness in an abyss of black.

His limbs feel heavy. His attempt to lift his arm only results in screaming pain.

Guess he went to Hell after all.

 

_Hissssss..._

The world opens up. Kokichi squints, turning away from the blinding light filtering into his enclosure. Noise surrounds him, and he finds panic rising in his sore chest. Too many hands poke and prod at his body, pulling IVs out of his arms and tearing velcro straps off his legs and upper body. He tries to shift, wanting them to go away. His body refuses to cooperate.

"Stop it," he wants to say, but it comes out less like an order and more like a strangled croak. His throat is parched and throbs from disuse. With no words forming to convey his feelings and no movement to be found in his limbs, he resorts to "worst case scenario"'s plan: screaming.

Within seconds, a medical mask is placed over his mouth, and the world returns to darkness.

 

His second awakening is much more comfortable. Aside from new IVs in his arms, it's a normal, quiet hospital room. There's a glass of water on the nightstand. He coughs and reaches for it; his hand drops it halfway in-between, causing it to shatter on the ground. Tears well up in his eyes, but he forces them down as the door opens, revealing a stranger that could only be a doctor.

He largely ignores her as she feeds him lies. Virtual Reality. Signing up for some show called Danganronpa. No one actually died. What bullshit. He hates being lied to. "I understand it's a lot to take in, but it's the truth." Ha. Those were the words of a liar if he ever heard them.

He's glad when she finally leaves, though it's filled with anger at her leaving promise of "bringing some of his friends back to visit". Even if she wasn't lying and his classmates were alive, none of them were his friends. Kokichi huffs.

 

He wants to get up, but he can't feel his legs. He entertains himself by raising and lowering his bed, taking inventory of everything in the room that could be useful in escaping once he regains mobility. If he's going to be in Hell, he shouldn't have to be stuck in a hospital. Couldn't they find a better punishment for him? Fire and brimstone and torture fitting for the Ultimate Supreme Leader of Assholery.

After half an hour, he locates the TV remote and turns it on. It opens onto Gonta's execution. He immediately flips it off and lies back, closing his eyes. Of course. What was he expecting Hell's TV to show him?

Maybe this is too appropriate of a punishment after all - boredom and taunting him with his failures.

 

"Hey, Ouma." And it even comes with its very own Momota replica. Fun. Kokichi keeps his eyes closed, and the door closes, feet shuffling closer to his bed. "Is he sleeping?" He mumbles, before sighing. The sound of a chair being dragged across the floor pierces his ears.

He dares to peek out through his eyelashes. Momota placed himself at his bedside, leaning back with a tired expression. He doesn't look exactly like the Momota he remembers - his hair is down, bags under his eyes, nose slightly crooked - but he'd recognize the dumb worry in his eyes anywhere.

 

He lets out a dramatic sigh. "Maaaaan, even in death Momota-chan just won't leave me alone."

Momota starts, nearly tilting the chair too far backward. "Oh, you're awake." There's an awkward pause as Kokichi can tell he wants to say something and thus remains quiet himself. "How, uh, how are you feeling..?"

"I feel great."

"Alright, so shitty it is." He scratches the back of his head. "So, how much did they tell you?"

He didn't want to talk to Momota, but he didn't have anything better or more interesting to be doing. "Something something virtual reality TV show everyone's alive. I know it's not true though, don't worry."

 

Momota pauses. "Uh, if that's what you want to believe. Didn't think you were the type to lie to yourself."

That irks him. "This is real life, Momota-chan. Happy endings where everyone who died is actually alive don’t happen. And I know I died." He can almost feel the gaping hole still in his spine, poison burning in his blood as the hydraulic press lowers, and lowers,  _and lowers-_

"H-Hey, Ouma!" His shoulders are suddenly grabbed, shaking him.

In response, he pushes back against Momota, though it doesn't move him. "Don't touch me." His voice cracks. His order is ignored, aside from the shaking stopping to Momota just holding his shoulders in place, staring at him. He  **hates**  it.

 

"Do you want to go see the others? Maybe seeing them for yourself will-"

"No." He grabs the hand on his left shoulder and pries it off. "I'm not interested."

"Why?"

"I don't have to explain myself to you. You're not real anyway."

 

He flinches, before removing his other hand. Did Kokichi hurt him? Good. "Ouma, you..." Momota swallows. "Did they also tell you about the... the memories?"

Hm? They didn't, but it's clear that he doesn't like whatever it is. He decides to take advantage of it. "Of course. They told me everything."

Momota's brows furrow, eyes searching his expression. "So..." He pauses, clenching and unclenching his fists before slowly saying, "So they told you about your life prior to the Killing Game?"

 

Something deep in his head and his chest throbs. What's there to tell that he didn't already know? He saw his motive video with DICE. "Yep." He needs to dig for more information. "Why does Momota-chan want to know so badly? Are you that interested in my tragic backstory?" He goes to pick at his fingernails, only to discover them far longer than the last time he looked. He takes advantage of the new length to dig them into his palm painfully to hide his surprise. "Sorry, but you have to have at least level 9 friendship with me to get that."

"So, why did you join?"

"Is that a trick question? How about you tell me your story first."

Momota averts his eyes. "I... They said it was for the participation money. Even if I died, it was a pretty hefty payout."

"Of course Momota-chan would have a stupid motive."

Momota jerks to his feet. "It wasn't stupid. And stop lying to me; I know they haven't told you shit."

"Oh? How can you tell?" He tries to be amused at the glistening in Momota's eyes, but it just makes him feel weird.

 

"Because there's a lot crueler things you could attack me with if you knew the whole truth."

 

Now he's interested. He drums his fingers in his lap. "So, are you going to tell me then?"

"I..." He hesitates, swallowing. "I dunno... I'm still processing it myself, I... I want to but... I dunno," he sighs, "And you don't believe anything they've told you so far, so you'll probably just laugh and call me stupid."

"Yeah, probably," he agrees, "You shouldn't take what they say at face value, Momota-chan. I can tell they're liars. Just like you."

Momota looks sad. Boo hoo. "I figured." He sighs again. "Look, I'll come back later. If you're ready to accept the truth then, I'll tell you, but..." He turns away. "Don't lie to yourself."

 

His entire body screams in pain as Momota leaves.


	25. Day 4 - Lost Dreamers - Tragedy AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> today's prompt is "Stargazing | Dreams" but I liked the title I gave this better than using the prompts lmao

Meeting on the rooftop at night starts to become part of their routine.

Kaito hopes it says something about the progression of their friendship(?) that Ouma feels more comfortable spending time alone with him, but when it comes to him, he’s never really sure what’s going through his head. He wants to though; he wants to understand the enigma living down the hall from him.

 

“So, you were a first year when shit hit the fan, yeah? I was too.” Tonight’s topic begins with school. Ouma’s always reluctant to talk about personal matters, but he doesn’t resist as Kaito gently prods.

“Mhm, though it wasn’t at a super nice school or anything. Honestly, I was considering dropping out for a while anyway, so losing high school wasn’t a huge deal.” He leans back, resting his arms behind his head.

“Dropping out? Did you not like it?”

“It was pretty boring, yeah. I wanted to go to the same school as Akamatsu-chan and Iruma-chan, but, well, theirs was pretty backwards. Their school wasn’t terrible, though; pretty nice facility and teachers, just had a terrible board.”

 

He wants to ask further, but he senses the line Ouma doesn’t want crossed and falls back. “What were you planning to do if you did drop out?”

“Software engineering, probably. Iruma-chan was already getting started with her inventing by the time we were in middle school, so I picked up coding with her.” He pauses, the silence between them a comfortable one before he continues on. “So, astronaut? That was some goal. I bet space travel would’ve been pretty advanced by the time you graduated college.”

Kaito’s heart throbs. “Yeah. It… It would’ve been pretty great.” He hesitates, unsure if it’s okay to say what he wants to say. “I was actually hoping to get into a program straight out of high school. Or even  _in_  high school.” He looks away. “I actually passed the exam, you know.”

“That’s pretty impressive,” Ouma responses, and for once it seems genuine. “For someone who acts dumb, you’re not the dumbest person I’ve met.” ‘Course, it had to become a backhanded compliment, but hey, he’ll take it.

 

He waits a few minutes before cautiously stepping into the topic he wants to breach. “So, uh, hypothetically, if you were accepted into Hope’s Peak, what would you do?”

Ouma takes a long moment to answer. “Attend, probably.” He shifts, sitting back up to meet Kaito’s gaze. “Have you been talking to Akamatsu-chan about this?”

He shakes his head. “No, why?”

The contemplation in his eyes is crystal clear even through the night’s shroud of darkness. “She… Well, she and Iruma-chan, they were being scouted for the next school year. So it wasn’t…” He trails off, turning away.

Now that he thinks about it, it’s pretty obvious. The two of them were eccentric in a way that he completely relates to, him with space, them with piano and inventing. “I was scouted too, actually,” he confesses, voice little more than a whisper. “Ultimate Astronaut, they were saying.”

 

Ouma doesn’t respond. Kaito almost thinks he’s said the wrong thing, but Ouma wasn’t the type to hold back if he had. He decides to push at the line set. “So, was it a hypothetical for you?”

He’s silent for what feels like an eternity. “I don’t know. They couldn’t decide on a talent. They were interested, but they didn’t know what for.” There was a clear difference between a normal genius and an Ultimate. That hyper-specialization was what Hope’s Peak looked to narrow in on.

“You must be pretty talented, then,” he answers with, finding the words coming naturally.

Ouma gives him a wry smirk. “You don’t have to suck up to me, I know that them not immediately deciding speaks for itself. If it wasn’t for my connection to the girls, they wouldn’t have found me at all.”

 

He doesn’t hesitate in his rebuttal. “You’re wrong. I’m certain they would’ve found you.”

He frowns. “Don’t lie to me. I don’t like that.”

“It’s not a lie. Maybe we’ll never know for certain, but I believe that it would’ve happened. I mean, I’m not the type to believe in destiny or all that crap, but what else would you call this?” He gestures back towards the house. “Us meeting, when there’s countless others wandering this wasteland of a country. That has to count for something.”

 

“If that’s your attempt at a pick-up line, Momota-chan, it was pretty lame.”

He coughs. “H-Huh, no! It’s just-”

“It’s just that you think that the four of us were destined to know each other, one way or another? Sounds pretty stupid.” Ouma shakes his head, though there’s something aside from amusement at his wild theory in his eyes.

 

“Maybe it is stupid,” he relents, “But it’s a nice thought.” He pushes himself up, preparing to go back inside now that he senses the end of the conversation.

 

He almost doesn’t catch it, but behind him, Ouma softly replies, “Yeah, it’s a nice thought.”


	26. Day 5 - AU - VR AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> continuing where ch24 left off, and seeing as this is going to become a Thing I've gone ahead and added an identifier onto them. any chapters w/ "VR AU" are part of this unless stated otherwise

Surprisingly, there was a visitor before Momota made his promised return.

 

Amami walked in uninvited, a lazy expression that hid stress and anxiety behind it on his face. “Hey, what’s up?”

He wouldn’t admit it, but he liked Amami. Not in a romantic way, but he was interesting, and from his video in the Ultimate Suvivor’s lab, probably not a murderer or the mastermind. Which made him one of the more trustworthy people in the group.

 

“I’m in pain and Momota-chan just finished bullying meee,” he whined, not entirely for real but also not entirely fake.

Amami chuckled. “Did he really? From the way he looked when I passed him earlier, I would’ve assumed you were the one picking on him.” He pulled himself further from the door, approaching the bedside and grabbing a bottle off the nightstand. “These your pills? They give you any yet?”

“Hm~ I dunno!” They were his, he hadn’t taken them and had no intention of taking them. “But that was a lie, about me being in pain. I feel perfectly fine.”

 

“If you say so.” He didn’t seem to believe him as he opened the bottle and pulled out two of the pills, placing them by the new (plastic) glass of water the doctor had left. “Take them when you need them, then; I know from experience that the pain will spike throughout the day, especially at night.”

He chose not to respond to his advice. “So, why is Amami-chan here? I’m sure the others have told you allllll about my nefarious deeds while we were all alive.”

He frowned. “Ouma-kun, do you think we’re dead?”

“Of course!”

 

Amami’s eyes searched his expression, before sighing. “Well, I’m here to show you footage from the rest of the simulation after you died. If you’d like to see what happened afterwards, that is.”

Did he want to know? The answer was both yes and no. Unfortunately, curiosity won out. “Well, if you’re going to beg to show me, I suppose I have no choice.” Realistically, he didn’t; Amami could take the remote away and turn it on, playing the fourth murder and trial and execution on loop until he begged for forgiveness.

 

Not that he would.

 

“Alright, I’ll put it in then. Do you want to see the investigation, or just skip to the trial?”

He hummed, thinking it over. “I’d actually like to see what the others were doing before I died. Momota-chan and I were locked up in the hanger, soooo…”

He didn’t protest, inserting a USB into the side of the TV and accepting the remote from Kokichi, flipping through menus. It was like selecting a scene on a movie. He frowned.

 

“Ah, here it is.” Amami clicked on a scene, and it opened up onto Harukawa walking into the dorm, pulling the others out of their rooms one by one. Just the sight of her irritated him. “She found a flashback light and is grabbing the others…” He skipped forward a bit to them standing in the cafeteria.

“So, who recorded this?”

“Team Danganronpa, technically. It was edited, of course, but just in cutting and pasting the different shots together. The raw footage of any particular camera is stored on the main computer hooked up to the VR machine.” Ah yes, he totally trusted that not to be edited too. He rolled his eyes and instead focused on the footage that may or may not be real.

 

Hours flew by.

 

They ended up having to skip a lot of the trial, as the video he and Momota recorded sent phantom pain coursing through his body. He still managed to see enough to deepen his hatred for Harukawa - seriously, planning to kill all of her quote-unquote friends just to kill him?! - and enough to tell that none of the others would care if he was alive. Even Momota, who pretended to care, said that he hated him. Kokichi especially hated that his words and his death hurt almost as much as dying himself.

“Do you want to continue?” Amami asked, pausing the scene at the group sluggishly shuffling into the elevator, tears rolling down all the faces that were human. Momota told them not to cry and only Kiiboy was able to follow his last request, though not by choice.

“Yes.” He wanted to see which of his classmates was the mastermind so he could finally solidify his trust ranking.

 

He stood up and stretched, tossing the remote onto Kokichi’s bed. “Let me just go get some dinner then, you can continue on your own while you wait. Want anything?”

Was he hungry? “No, I’m fine.”

Amami looked skeptical, but said nothing as he left. Once the door was closed, he pressed play, skipping past all of the pity party they were throwing for themselves until, suddenly, Kiiboy was blowing stuff up. Wow. Why couldn’t he have made himself this useful when his lab first opened up? So useless.

 

He was skipping through Saihara and Harukawa rudely digging through his room when Amami returned, a bowl of soup in one hand and a healthy serving of sushi in the other. He set his food down and pulled the bed’s tray out in front of Kokichi before placing the soup onto it. “You should eat some.”

“Fineee, but if this is poisoned I’ll kill you, Amami-chan!” He reluctantly ate, and while he did so, Amami took charge of skipping the boring scenes.

 

“You know, Momota-kun’s been waiting outside your door for a few hours,” he commented offhandedly, causing Kokichi to cough as he sharply inhaled soup into his throat.

“Oh?” He tried to nonchalantly respond, “I didn’t realize Momota-chan was the stalker type. How scary; do you think he’s going to go yandere and kill you for being in here with me and then kill me again so no one else can have me?” Not that anyone would want him, but jokes were funny! Him dying was funny!

“Let’s not joke about that,” Amami laughed, although clearly uncomfortable, “I think he was wanting to talk to you again, but I told him that you were watching the footage still.”

“He’s persistent. And too needy.”

“He just cares a lot.”

 

Kokichi scoffed. “Well, not for me. Anyone but me.” He returned his attention to the TV, blocking out any objections Amami would try to make. He hated that sort of lie the most.


	27. Day 6 - Kids - HPA AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the sequel to ch17, which I just realized is also titled Kids//

“Okay, wait, don’t tell him,” Kokichi whispered excitedly to Miu as they approached the front door to their house.

“What, are  _you_  gonna tell him?” She clicked her tongue in mock annoyance. “You boys and your circlejerks, ever think that  _I_  wanna be praised too?”

“Shhhhh, it’s okay, Kiiboy’ll praise you all night without asking.”

She huffed, though her face noticeably red. “Whatever. But you gotta do it at dinner so I can see him choke in surprise.”

“Ooh, kinky~! But sure, that’s fine.”

 

Excitement bubbled in his chest as the afternoon progressed. Kaito gave him weird looks, but that was okay. He just had to hold out on revealing the big news until dinner, that was all. He distracted himself by playing with Aito, who was very bright for a 2 year old. He liked to climb and jump, which were things that Kokichi also enjoyed. He would be proud if they had an Ultimate Parkour Artist on their hands, but perhaps it was a bit much to expect that two Ultimates would produce another, especially when his parents were science oriented with the physically in shape as a bonus.

Still! He could dream! Kaito said there were never enough dreams in the universe. Which sure, Kokichi said was stupid, but when Kaito said something with such passion it was difficult to not take in at least some of whatever he was going on about.

 

His reactions were the best, though. That was one of the things Kokichi loved about him the most. He was both predictable and unpredictable, annoying and entertaining in all the right ways. Miu certainly agreed, though Shuichi probably would remove any negative words and tone them down to more polite versions.

“So, Iruma-chan and I went to her appointment today,” he commented offhandedly once dinner was underway, prompting Miu to complain.

“Ughhhh, fucking doctors, it’s such BS. We gotta call up that slutty nurse from class 77 to act as a midwife because I’m  **not**  going to the hospital ever again.”

Kaito ignored her while Kiiboy attempted to comfort her. “How’d it go? It was for an ultrasound, right?”

“Yup!” He pulled out the sonogram and passed it to him as he was shoveling a large portion of rice into his mouth.

 

Kaito nodded as he processed what he was looking at. Then, predictably, he coughed. “W-Wait, what am I looking at?”

He shot Miu a look, then feigned ignorance. “Hm? It’s a sonogram. You remember what that is, right? It shows you the development-”

“Don’t be a little-” He cut himself off, eyes glancing towards Aito. “Uh, just, it doesn’t look right.”

“What doesn’t look right?” Kiiboy asked, reaching forward to accept the image. He stared at it blankly until Kaito reached over to point it out.

 

“Look, there’s, there’s like… a glitch or something. Like there’s two- OH!” Aaaand it connected. Kokichi gave him a cheeky grin as he spun around to him and Miu to reveal his finding. “Are you having twins?!”

“Fuck yeah I am!” Miu proudly shouted, getting a chorus of “language!” in response to her profanity. She shrunk at the sudden scolding.

“Wha- Why- How?!” Kaito blubbered. Aito looked up from playing with his food to see what the ruckus was all about.

“Well, Kai-chan, when a mommy and daddy love each other-” He was cut off as Miu recovered and butted in.

 

“Did you expect anything else from my gorgeous fertile body combined with Ouma’s weird-” Miu paused, clearly struggling to find an alternative to “weird-ass” and some allusion to his sperm. “Um, whatever! Point is, our kids are gonna be doubly perfect! Not that my kids aren’t perfect to begin with, right Aito?” She cooed, reaching over to encourage him to eat.

Kiiboy looked perplexed. “I see. My research did say that twins happen, but…” He “sweated”, clearly lost as to how to process the news.

Kaito scratched the back of his head. “Man, just when I thought it was gonna be easier the second time, you had to find a way around it, huh Kichi?”

He grinned. “You know me; I’m always here to challenge my dear Kai-chan!”

He smiled and shook his head fondly. “Well, there’s no challenge too great for the Luminary of the Stars! And there’s still more adults than kids, so I think we’re good.”

 

Kokichi gave him a mischievous smirk, before turning to Miu. “Hey, wanna aim for triplets next?”

“Oh hell yeah!”

“Language! And no!”


	28. Gemini - HPA AU

“Now if you look at that bright spot over there, that’s actually Venus. Right now it’s next to the Pisces constellation, but I’m guessing you’d probably be more familiar with Orion over there…”

Kokichi listened quietly as Momota blabbered on about the various constellations, trying to figure out how he managed to let himself be dragged into this winter stargazing trip. It was cold. Really cold. Even bundled up, he could barely feel his hands.

He could leave anytime he wanted. Momota couldn’t stop him - but at the same time, his dumb excited face was the exact reason Kokichi couldn’t bring himself to leave. So, he endured February’s cold so he wouldn’t be pouted at. How had he sunk so low?

 

“… oh, and that’s Cancer right there.” His fingers traced along a collection of stars. “You’re a Cancer, right?”

“Gemini,” he corrected.

Momota’s eyebrows furrowed in suspicion. “You sure?”

“Just because I’m on the cusp doesn’t make me any less of one. Charasmatic, intelligent, two-faced liar to the bone, Momota-chan.”

“… And how do I know you’re not lyin’ ‘bout that? 'Sides, I’m not even a huge astrology nerd and I know that Gemini being liars is just a stereotype.”

He hummed. “Just because it’s a stereotype doesn’t mean it’s automatically wrong. You can’t say I’m not a liar.”

 

Momota predictably had no rebuttal. He was silent for a few long minutes, letting the world around them fill the silence with its ambient noise. “Well, whatever,” he quietly said, “Gemini’s visible right now too, right over there next to Cancer.” His fingers dropped once he traced it for Kokichi to see, clearly not as enthusiastic as he’d been earlier. Kokichi hated that he felt somewhat bad for ruining the mood.

 

So, to counter that rising bad feeling, he restarted the conversation to distract him. “So, why’d you ask me to come instead of Saihara-chan or Harukawa-chan? Surely you’d have much more fun stargazing with your sidekicks.”

“Uh, I guess…” He slowly sat up, averting his gaze. “But I guess there was something I was wanting to talk to you about…”

“Oh?” Kokichi rose as well, interest sparking in his chest.

“Yeah, uh, it’s just…” Momota swallowed nervously. His voice dropped to a whisper. “It’s just, well, how did you know? That, that you were gay.”

 

He blinked. “Wow, is Momota-chan seriously asking me for advice on being gay?”

He clenched his fists. “Listen, it’s, it’s just, I know you won’t lie to me.”

“We just talked about this-”

“I know that! I know you lie about shit all the fucking time, but you’ll be almost overly blunt if you wanna make a point.” He finally met Kokichi’s eyes with intense determination burning in his own. “So I want you to be straight with me and-”

 

“Well, I can’t be  _straight_  with you,” he interrupted, “But I guess if Momota-chan’s going to beg, it can’t be helped.” Kokichi was  _so_  going to hold this over his head for the rest of eternity. “I guess I just started seeing boys and thinking, wow, I’d like to kiss them, or get in their pants, maybe live a fun domestic life together with a house and two kids, and I never really saw girls who made me feel like that.”

“I get that, but- but how do you know when you’re in  _love_  with a guy?!” He looked desperate for an answer, so much that Kokichi hesitated in responding.

“Well, they excite me, I enjoy their company more than-” He stopped. “Okay, seriously, why are you asking me?”

The words tumbled from Momota’s lips so fast, it was hard to tell if he was even thinking before he spoke. “Because I think I might be in love with you.”

 

Kokichi froze. “That’s not a funny joke, Momota-chan.”

“I- It’s- It’s not-” He sputtered in response, face bright red. It was almost painfully obvious that he hadn’t meant to just say that, which made Kokichi’s gut twist painfully as the implication of that being true collided with the logical side of his brain.

“It’s not what? Not a joke? Not a joke that someone like you would fall in love with someone like me? When I’m always getting on your nerves? When most of the time you hate me? You must truly be an idiot if any part of our friendship - if even that - translates to love in your head.”

“You… You don’t think we’re friends?” Momota looked taken aback. “And hate? I don’t hate you. You frustrate me, sure, you rile me up more than anyone else, but I’d never call that hatred.”

“What would you call it then?”

 

He clenched his fists. “I don’t know. A feeling of rivalry? But more than just that. You’ve always been someone that’s always rearing to challenge me, to knock me down and watch me climb back up. And I enjoy that. A lot.”

His words touched too close to home for comfort. He felt himself shake, not from the cold, but from the panic building inside him. “That’s not love. If anything, that sounds like masochism, which is Saihara-chan’s thing so-”

“Then what is love?!” Momota pulled himself to his feet. “Passion, understanding, chemistry, everyone always  _says_  this stuff but when I describe it with my own feelings, I’m wrong?!”

 

“You think you understand me?” He narrowed in on the weak spot to tear it to shreds. “I think that’s an even bigger joke than thinking you’re in love with me.”

Momota hesitated, but quickly pushed on. “Maybe I don’t. But I want to. Fuck, I want to understand you so badly it hurts sometimes.”

“If it hurts, then you should stop chasing after it. Accepting we’ll never see eye to eye and that you’ll never understand will help it go away faster.” He hopped to his feet, brushing bits of grass off his pants.

 

“You must be pretty stupid yourself if you think I’ll give up just because you said never.”

“Excuse me?”

“Maybe it’s not love. But I want to get to know the real you. The you hiding behind lies, pushing everyone away out of fear.”

“You’re delusional.” Despite his cold words, for the first time that night Kokichi felt warm.


	29. Dramatics - HPA AU

“Ugh, Momo-chaaaan~” Ouma groaned, covering his eyes with his pillow. “I’m not gonna make it. You’ll have to carry on without me. Please, live on, for the both of us.”

“Stop fussing. You’re sick, not dying.”

“The world’s growing dark… Goodbye, my love, never forget me-”

 

His dramatics were cut off by Kaito tearing the pillow away from his head. “I said stop it, I can’t give you your medicine if you’re actin’ like this.”

Ouma pouted at him in response. “You’re no fun.” Regardless, he pulled himself up, taking the cup of medicine from Kaito and downing it.

“You’re not the one that was kept up all night by you tossing and turning and dribbling snot everywhere,” he grumbled, tossing the pillow back onto the bed and grabbing a damp washcloth to wipe sweat and some of the aforementioned snot off Ouma’s face.

“Sure, blame the sick person,” he whined, leaning away from him, “And you’re being too rough! You’re gonna give my beautiful face a rug burn!”

“Even if you got rug burn - which you won’t - it wouldn’t ruin anything that’s not already ruined.”

 

He gasped. “Did you just insult my face?! Right to my face?!” False tears filled the corners of his eyes, and Kaito resisted the urge to sigh at the further dramatics to come. “You’re so cruel to me, Momo-chan, I can’t believe you can say such cold things with a straight face.” The tears disappeared, a mocking smirk replacing it. “Maybe the truth is that you don’t really love me, and-”

“Oh my god, just fucking- just shut up. I’m too tired for this.” Kaito figured he was being manipulated in some way, but he had little choice but to play into his hands. He moved to the other side of the bed and laid down, quickly pulling Ouma into an embrace.

He stilled in his arms. “Huh?”

“I’m going back to sleep, so- so I- I just-” He stuttered, face flushing. “I just want to cuddle for a bit. If, if that’s okay…” He trailed off, mumbling.

 

Ouma was oddly silent for a long moment. “Geez, Momo-chan’s needy. You’re gonna get sick, you know.”

He let out the breathe he was holding, letting some of the tension release from his body. “Yeah, well, I’m not scared of your germs. It’ll take more than the threat of a cold to defeat me.”

He hummed in response, shifting in Kaito’s arms to get more comfortable. His breath was hot against his skin, fever coating him in sweat, but he found himself hardly caring, only concerned with the heaviness of his eyelids as sleep weighed down on him.


	30. Rain - HPA AU

“What the hell,” Kaito quietly cursed as they peeked out of the arcade, “I know they said it was going to rain, but damn.”

“Damn” was one way to put it. It was absolutely downpouring, rain hitting the ground loud enough to require them to speak up to hear each other. Shuichi sighed, fidgeting as its chill seeped through the window. “Well, they’re about to close, so unfortunately we’re going to have to head out.”

As he spoke, Ouma glanced off to the side, towards the umbrella stand. “Well, someone took our umbrella, so…”

“What?!” Kaito’s head jerked as he looked over as well. “I thought you locked it up!”

He blinked. “I thought _you_ locked it up; you _were_ the one that put it down.”

“No! I don’t have the lock! I never have the lock!”

 

A heavy weight sat in Shuichi’s pocket as the two argued. His fingers slipped in to touch it, and when they brushed against cold metal he grimaced. “Oh, um… I, I have the lock, sorry.” Guilt churned in his stomach as the two turned to him.

Of course, they didn’t yell or get mad. They never bickered with him, only each other. It didn’t stop him from feeling bad, from wondering if they were holding back from snapping at him, but it was better than all the other worst case scenarios that raced through his head.

“Well,” Kaito hesitatingly continued, “Whatever. Don’t worry about it, we can pick one up at the convenience store. It’s not too far off.” He shifted. “Just, uh, here-” He shrugged his jacket off, tossing it around Shuichi’s shoulders. “You ‘n’ Ouma can use this; it’ll help keep you at least a bit dry.”

“Aw, Momota-chan’s so selfless and gentlemanly,” Ouma sang, not wasting any time huddling up at Shuichi’s side to pull the space-patterned jacket around himself, “Be careful, or Gonta’ll come running to you for advice.”

“Better than ‘im going to you,” Kaito retorted.

 

After a few minutes of hoping the rain would die down, they finally sucked it up and ran out, Shuichi and Ouma holding Kaito’s jacket over their heads while Kaito did his best to keep the rain out of his eyes with his arm. Even though the convenience store was conveniently only a few minutes away, it felt like a lifetime before they reached it.

By the time they breathlessly rushed into the store, they were more or less completely soaked. Shuichi fidgeted, trying to ignore the glances being sent in their direction as rain dripped off their clothes onto the floor. A rather large puddle was forming under Kaito as he paid for three umbrellas, counting out his yen under his breath while having to brush locks of hair out of his face.

 

“I don’t know why you’re getting three,” Ouma commented as the counting finally ceased and the checkout wrapped up with the receipt and change handed over.

“If I buy one, we won’t fit, and if I buy two, someone’ll be sad that they have to walk alone. It’s not that complex, Ouma.”

“Then you should’ve just coughed up the few extra yen to get the bigger-” Ouma glanced over to where they normally were. “Oh. Of course they’re out.” He pouted. “I hate the rainy season. And that’s not a lie.”

 

“Don’t sulk, I’ll still hold your hand,” Kaito said, though quietly as if he were afraid of being overheard. Anxiety sent a tremble into Shuichi’s own hands, but he bit his tongue. It was only fair; he’d had his turn holding hands earlier, and umbrellas took up half of the hands available.

“I guess if Momota-chan needs me to guide him home, I have no choice,” Ouma dramatically replied, though a similar tension was reflected in his eyes as he took Kaito’s hand and exited, as if fleeing from the watching eyes.

Shuichi quickly followed after his boyfriends, Kaito’s drenched jacket folded up in his arms. He couldn’t wait to get home, away from the stares and the cold and into the warmth where the three of them could truly relax.


	31. Countdown - Soulmate AU

1 day, 2 hours, 8 minutes.

1 day, 2 hours, 7 minutes.

 

Kaito couldn't help the concern building in his heart as the timer on the underside of his wrist clicked down. Even in his current situation, trapped in the hanger's bathroom coughing his lungs out, ~~surely dying himself,~~ he only hoped that his soulmate's apparent upcoming fate was wrong.

Because with the horrifying truth of the outside word, his soulmate could only be one of the remaining six - did robots have soulmates? - five if Kiibo was excluded. One of his few remaining friends could die. Another murder could be the only explanation, despite all his wishes for no more to occur.

But who would kill? Shuichi and Harumaki would never, Yumeno was literally the least threatening person he'd ever met, Shirogane was, well, enthusiastic, but definitely not a murderer, just a quiet nerdy girl, and Kiibo had morals as strong as Kaito's own.

And Ouma, the apparent mastermind, was sitting in the next room, claiming the game was over and that no more murders would happen, despite Kaito's gut feelings saying otherwise. For once, he almost wanted to trust the liar, but after all he'd done, trusting Ouma was as close to impossible as he was comfortable claiming.

 

1 day, 1 hour, 59 minutes.

 

As he washed blood off his hands in the thankfully available sink, he again attempted to build a plan of escape from scratch. Wrestling the Exisal remote from Ouma still seemed like it could work, if it weren't for his deteriorating strength. He paced the bathroom for what felt like the millionth time since he was captured, trying to find some sort of tool to give him an upper hand.

There was nothing, predictably. Just toilet paper, which unlike the Virtual World was utterly useless and did nothing more than unearth bad memories in his mind. Dammit. How could he let things come to this? He kicked at the door in frustration, the dull thud echoing off the walls. The numb spark it sent through his foot urged him to kick it again, and again, only just able to obtain some sense of relief from lashing out.

Once his foot was probably more than a little bruised, he finally forced himself to stop and sit back down, chest throbbing yet again. His mind wandered back to his soulmate as he watched the minutes click down on his wrist. How long did he himself have? Was his soulmate worried about him too? Would he even live 26 more hours to see his timer reach 0?

 

1 day, 1 hour, 37 minutes.

 

He quickly pulled his sleeve back over his wrist as the door flew open. A bag of chips were tossed in his direction as Ouma leaned against the door, a plastic bag in his hands. "If you're done throwing a temper tantrum, I'll give you the rest of your dinner."

He scoffed. "I don't need your food. Prolly a bunch of crappy cheap shit anyway."

Ouma hummed. "Well, more for me then. But you know, if you're still planning to fight me or something stupid like that, you're certainly not going to win on an empty stomach." When Kaito glared at him, he just returned it with a grin. "Well, not that you'd win anyway-"

"Whatever, just give me your fucking dinner," he growled. After two rice balls were rolled over to him - fucking coward wouldn't even walk over - he turned away, not wanting to eat staring at Ouma's smug grin.

 

23 hours, 9 minutes.

 

It had to be around one in the morning, right? His only indication of time was from the announcements and the timer, but all the math on his sleep-deprived brain was making him confused. Either way, Kaito was bored and wanted to sleep somewhere that wasn't the cold steel floor. That desire prompted him to leave the bathroom, despite Ouma's threats of literally throwing him back in using the Exisals.

Course, that threat was pretty empty when Ouma wasn't even in sight. Warily, Kaito poked around the hanger, trying to find something useful. Since the place had been empty to begin with, and no one had brought anything new in, there was nothing to be found aside from machines too large to be helpful.

He let out a frustrated groan as he scratched the back of his head. Without Ouma or the hanger remote, he was stuck. He felt antsy being stuck doing nothing, but there was little he could do aside from waiting to be released. _Would_ he be released? Surely Ouma couldn't keep him locked up forever?

Either way, death was coming for him soon. He sighed, slumping back to the bathroom, hoping that the night wouldn't be too rough on his battered body.

 

13 hours, 53 minutes.

 

Shuichi was standing outside his window. There was an unfamiliar light in his eyes and his words that Kaito struggled to recognize. He tried to feel happy that his sidekicks were still remaining strong despite his lack of leadership, but he couldn't stop his hands from shaking. Was Shuichi his soulmate? Harumaki? There were only 14 hours left, and he desperately wanted to ask Shuichi for advice.

But he couldn't worry him. They’d all agreed not to talk about soulmate stuff, and they were already busy preparing to break Kaito out, which had to be stressful in itself. He could still find a solution to this on his own.

Sorry, Shuichi.

 

1 hour, 1 minute.

 

He resisted the urge to cough as Ouma frantically edited a large spiraled notebook's worth of improv tips and lines to enact the upcoming plan. His timer was long forgotten in the chaos of the night, the blood on his hands not entirely his own this time. He'd wash it off, but there was no point in doing it yet. The dirty work still had to be done.

"Stop... Stop fidgeting so much," Ouma wheezed out, "You're being distracting."

"Sorry." He dug his nails into his hands, trying to keep himself still through the distraction of pain. "Need anything done while you write?"

"Just your silence. Please."

Hearing genuine words from him was still jarring to Kaito. But not entirely in an uncomfortable way. In a way, it was... sad, yeah, sad. Sad that he was only seeing this side of Ouma in his final moments. In their final moments.

He fought back tears as he turned away, an excruciating fire burning in his chest.

 

2 minutes.

 

He tried not to shake as his hands wrapped around the two buttons, eyes flickering over in an attempt to meet Ouma's. He couldn’t, however; he’d already closed them, and while not in resignation, possibly in fear. Though it wouldn't show up on the camera, he was shaking himself as he laid in the press.

Kaito swallowed down his emotions and pressed the buttons together. Through the booming machinery, his attention was caught by something that wasn't the imminent death in front of him.

 

The countdown to zero.


	32. Mock Orange - Hanahaki Canon Compliant

The itch settles the day after the second trial, an uncomfortable urge to cough lurking in the back of his throat as nighttime settles upon the school. It burns from deep in his chest, a building pressure that isn’t quite painful but still manages to distract him. Kaito swallows and shakes his head, attempting to alleviate it as he focuses on the task at hand: banging on Harukawa’s door to convince her to train with him and Shuichi.

It calms as they train, not gone but subtle enough that he doesn’t feel it unless he remembers it’s there. He chalks it up to a forming cold or allergies or something. Whatever, it happens, no big deal. At least, it isn’t a big deal until - as he’s getting ready to sleep - that cough that was threatening to rise finally breaks through. Two quick bursts, short enough that he could still write it off as normal.

 

That is, until he looks into his palm and finds a thin purple petal.

 

Sure, he’s heard of Hanahaki Disease before. Who hasn’t? He vividly recalls Grandpa laughing about getting it when he realized his love for Granny, while she fondly reminisced about the various people she’d had it for when jumping from crush to crush in her youth. In their older age, they didn’t see anything to worry about with the disease, comfortable with the mentality that it would all work itself out one way or another.

Kaito himself? Being a science oriented guy, he’s more than aware of the percentage of fatalities that consists of teens his age that fell deep into their first bout and then either refused treatment or couldn’t move on after being rejected. Sure, he believes in his grandparents, but…

 

He isn’t sure what  ~~scares~~  concerns him more: his own burning passion that could lead to his demise, or the fact that he has absolutely no idea who he’s caught it for.

 

He pinches the petal between his thumb and fingers, trying to make some sort of connection between it and his friends. But when all he can draw is a blank, he forces it out of his mind, dropping the petal into the trash. If he doesn’t even know who it is, it probably isn’t a super deep crush, right? If he can’t even think of the person, the crush can’t get worse, right?

 

By the following night, he’s coughing up a few petals every hour. He blames the student council and their stupid talk about raising the dead for the progression of his sickness from decent to worse, despite the rational part of his brain knowing the truth. Dammit. What the hell’s going on with him? Thinking it over, he’s narrowed down his list of potential interests to three people, but he can’t say that he feels particularly strongly towards one of them over the other two. All three of them are - or were, in Akamatsu’s case - just good friends.

 

What a mess. This whole situation is only giving Kaito a headache on top of the uncomfortable feeling swelling in his chest.

 

The third murder and trial comes and goes. It’s all he can do to push down the urge to cough up more petals during the trial, the whirlwind of developments and arguments thankfully distracting enough to make it easier than it had been the previous days. But as soon as Shuichi and Harumaki are out of sight, he practically keels over from the chain of coughs that surface, purple petals spilling out of his mouth.

Mixed among the familiar purple ones, however, are white petals, smaller and rounder than the others. His hand shakes, sending some of the two different petals fluttering to the ground. Not only one, but two? Two unrequited crushes? What the fuck is going on? This isn’t like him at all and he- he doesn’t like it.

Two flowers, two crushes. He has two sidekicks. Did he fall for them? Sure, Shuichi and Harumaki are cute, but… Whatever! It will pass, there’s no reason to worry about it! He again pushes it out of his mind, even though it’s impossible to ignore with how many petals he’s coughing up during the night hours.

 

By the time the following night comes, the purple petals are gone. He can’t be certain if that mean that his crush is gone or returned, but he’s relived regardless. He has enough problems. Now if only the white ones would disappear too.

 

After the fourth trial, as he’s hacking up white petals spotted with the telltale color of blood everywhere and glaring down Ouma, he wonders if someone can feel so much hate that they catch Hanahaki from the intensity of it. Shuichi and Harumaki are staring at him with wide eyes; he imagines one of them is wondering themselves if they’re the cause of his approaching death.

As he’s sitting alone in his room the next night, if it had to be one of them, he would bet money on it being Shuichi. After the way Kaito treated him in the trial and while investigating today, there isn’t any way that his sidekick would have feelings for him.

 

He’s pouting miserably in the hanger when he hears coughing from the next room over. He pauses. Is he imagining it? It’s soft, but he hears it again. Despite Ouma being a threat, a threat with powerful robots at his disposal, Kaito can’t help the concern that rises. Fuck, why is he concerned for their enemy?

He quickly decides to check on him. He’s dying of this rapidly advancing Hanahaki anyway. He peeks out of the bathroom into the main hanger.

 

Ouma’s lying on his stomach on the floor, papers scattered around him. And not only papers; those same purple petals that he himself had been coughing up only days before surround him. Kaito frowns, stepping out into the hanger.

Ouma spins around at the sound his feet make against the metal flooring. “Do you have a death wish?” He hisses, shuffling his papers to hide the petals. But it’s too late for that.

“You have it too?” He asks, ignoring the feigned ignorance he gets in response. “Who is it?”

“Someone you don’t know, so go back before I get the Exisals,” he lies.

 

Kaito doesn’t back down, grabbing one of the petals off the ground. Up close, he’s now certain it’s the same flower. He thinks. “It’s Shuichi, isn’t it.” That’s the only common link between them. And at Ouma’s almost invisible flinch, he’s proven right.

“What, wanna brag that he returned your feelings? Don’t think I didn’t notice you coughing up more than just white ones.”

Kaito scowls; of course the mastermind would see all that. “You only have yourself to blame.”

Ouma scoffs. “And what’s your excuse then?” He doesn’t wait for a response, pulling out the Exisal remote. Kaito returns to the bathroom before he can be manhandled.

 

It’s not like he has an answer anyway.

 

By the time Harumaki breaks into to rescue him, he’s coughing up full flowers.

By the time his hands are covered in blood that’s not his own, they’re gone.

 

He finally understands.

 

However illogical, the banter, the challenges, the hero verse the villain, all of that-

 

All of it amounts to an irrefutable, illogical truth.


	33. Sticker Stars - HPA AU

He’s chatting happily with Shuichi and Harumaki on their way out of school, when as he’s opening his locker to grab his shoes, a small note comes tumbling out. The three of them pause, and in the end, Shuichi’s the one to pick it up, handing it back to Kaito with a soft mumble that he doesn’t quite catch.

“What, a love letter?” He laughs, only a bit embarrassed that someone would place one in his locker, “Geez, if they’ve got something to get off their chest, they should-” As he talked, he’d been slowly opening it, and what he found causes him to pause.

 

 _my dear stupid momota,_  
you suck and I placed a surprise in your dorm so you should go find it  
-your mortal enemy

 

The letter’s written in English, letters sloppy and capitalization half-assed, causing his sidekicks to squint as they attempt to read it over his shoulder. He quickly folds it back up, pocketing it. The swiftness of the motion causes the two to give him questioning look, but he laughs it off. Inside, however, he’s seething. What the hell? His ‘mortal enemy’? He doesn’t have any enemies; he’s the Luminary of the Stars!

Still, even though he shrugs it off, the note burns a hole in the pocket of his jacket the entire afternoon, urging him to go check it out. It’s bad enough that Shuichi asks more than once if he’s alright, too obviously distracted as they’re hanging out. He would share the note, but Shuichi stresses himself out too quickly with negative shit like this, so showing him what could very well be hate mail or even a legitimate threat wouldn’t go over well.

 

So, he keeps his mouth shut, resisting that nagging urge to check out his dorm. Whatever this “surprise” is, it wasn’t framed positively, so he’s really not sure if he _wants_  to find out. Not that he has much of a choice in the matter, since it’s waiting for him in his dorm.

Fuck, how’d they get into his dorm to leave it?

 

When he finally returns to his room, it’s hesitantly, slowly creaking open the door as if a trap is waiting for him inside. When he doesn’t see anything out of the ordinary, he fully enters, closing the door behind him. The only things he notices different are the lights being left on and his bed looks like someone decided to jump on it.

He sighs, scratching the back of his head as he pokes around, looking for anything else. After half an hour, however, he gives up, turning his attention to his studies after dropping the note in the trash. It must’ve been a prank.

 

Two hours later, when he’s burnt out and ready to go to sleep, he finally discovers the “surprise”.

 

He flips off his lights, expecting the room to go dark. Because that’s what anyone would expect to happen. His expectations are subverted by his ceiling being covered in tiny stars, which up close are revealed to be glow-in-the-dark stickers. There’s a few larger ones too, one cut out in the shape of a crescent moon and a few Saturn-shaped ones.

As he’s awed and pleasantly surprised, he notices a faint glow from underneath his desk, where he finds another letter taped down with a strip of glow-in-the-dark tape. He carefully removes the tape to avoid tearing it, before flicking on his lamp to read it.

 

_you’re a stupid moron who complains too much about not being able to sleep under the stars and I hate you so enjoy your impossible to remove prank asshole ^_^  
-from the very cute and lovable Ouma Kokichi_

 

He rolls his eyes, sighing. He should’ve seen it coming; who else would break into his room and leave a mildly threatening note in his shoe locker. Still, the lies in his note are overly obvious, and he has to wonder if that’s on purpose as he folds it back up and, after a brief pause, fishes its companion back out of the garbage and slips them into his desk, shaking his head softly.

 

He’ll have to thank Ouma later, he thinks as he lays down, eyes quickly fluttering shut, content with the soft glow surrounding him.


	34. vast - College AU

“Hey, Momota-chan?”

“Mm?”

“You ever think about how even if we were able to travel at the speed of light, or even faster, it would still be impossible to traverse the known universe in the human lifespan? And even with cold sleep or other ways to extend our life, it would all be meaningless since time would still pass normally on Earth and everyone you know would be long gone by the time you return, if you return?”

 

Kaito paused his typing, turning away from his physics report to face his roommate. Ouma laid in a pile of beanbags, a handheld console loosely held in his hand. Its screen was dark, meaning that he had probably stopped playing it more than a few minutes ago. Kaito rubbed sleep out of his eyes; he hadn’t noticed the music of whatever game he had been playing stop at all, brain-dead from all the number-crunching he had to do for his coursework. He took a glance at the clock; it was nearly 2am.

“I mean, I guess,” he finally answered Ouma, “I know how it is, but I don’t really linger on that stuff. Kinda pointless to.”

He snorted. “Right. Of course.” He uncurled himself, stretching his body as far as it could from where he laid. The system in his hand slipped down to the floor as he did so, but he didn’t move to pick it up. “I forgot I lived with the ‘Luminary of Suppression’.”

He furrowed his brows. “The hell’s that supposed to mean?”

The grin he got in response didn’t meet Ouma’s eyes. “Nothing really.”

 

Typical. Kaito shook his head, turning back to his laptop and saving his paper. Ouma thankfully had no more enigmatic comments or questions while he tidied up their desk and shot a message to his sidekick Shuichi to encourage him to sleep if he wasn’t already (and he hardly ever was).

Annoyingly, though, Ouma did follow him into the bathroom while he brushed his teeth and dunked his head in the sink to wash out the dried hair gel, making snide comments about his choice in hairstyle.

“Would you shuddit and go to bed already,” Kaito growled, pushing him away so he could focus on trying to locate a clean towel to dry his head before he dripped water all over the floor.

“Uwahhh, Momota-chan hit me with his wet hands!” He whined in a clearly fake way. Kaito sighed and shook his head, exasperated, causing him to continue with, “Actually, I take it back; your hair like this is worse because you look like a dumb mutt! You’re even drying yourself off like one!”

 

“Seriously, fuck off.”

 

* * *

 

He was lying in bed, staring up into the consuming darkness, when a mumble reached his ears.

“Do you ever feel small, Momota-chan?” His voice was no longer teasing, returning to the same flat tone he had been using originally. “The universe is so immeasurably huge… and so immeasurably empty.”

Kaito mulled over his question for a few long minutes. “I mean… I think everyone feels small. But if I let that fear of the unknown stop me, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”

 

The silence spanned between them again, and Kaito almost thought that Ouma fell asleep waiting for his response, when he finally asks, “Are you ever afraid?”

“Afraid?” His first instinct was to deny it, but he pushed that away, sensing it wasn’t the time for denial. “Course I am. S'normal.” He paused. “Ghosts are terrifying.”

There was a soft laugh from the other side of the dorm room. “You know I’ll be renting a horror flick next movie night.”

“Don’t you fucking dare-”

“But listen, Momota-chan.”

Kaito cut himself off to listen. A long moment passed uneasily. He swallowed, suddenly nervous. “What?”

“… Nah, nevermind.” Ouma shifted in his bed, and through the dark he could see him turn away.

 

Not cool. “Man, c'mon, just spit it out.”

“I was just thinking that you’ll have a lot of people that’ll miss you. Lots of people with Momota-sized holes in their hearts.” He paused, inhaling. “So maybe you shouldn’t be so selfish.”

The sleep that had settled on him faded. “Selfish?!”

“Yeah, it’s selfish to act like you can’t get close to anyone while pulling people towards you, you know. It’s selfish and frankly pretty rude to lead people on like that.” His tone hardly changed the entire conversation, something which knocked Kaito off balance.

“What the hell are you going on about?!”

 

A soft hum filled the room, bouncing off the walls. “I’m going to bed. Just think about it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Cross-posting from my tumblr, trans-shuichisaihara, where I take prompt requests on occasion ^^


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